UPDATE 1-EU ministers choose Belgian Praet for ECB board job

                                
 * Praet brings wealth of international experience to board
                                
 * Seen as monetary policy centrist, maybe slightly dovish
                                
 * Decision means ECB Board, Council will be all-male
                                
 * Decision comes amid uncertainty about Trichet successor
                                
 
                                
 (Adds detail, background)
                                
 BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - European Union finance
ministers agreed unanimously on Monday to recommend Belgium's
Peter Praet to join the European Central Bank Executive Board at
the end of May, an EU source told Reuters.
                                
 Praet is believed to be centrist on monetary policy, perhaps
even slightly dovish, meaning he is more likely to take growth
prospects into account in the conduct of monetary policy than
strict inflation hawks do.
                                
 The six-member board is appointed by euro zone heads of
government on their finance ministers' recommendation to run the
central bank's day-to-day business. Executive board members also
have a seat on the ECB's policymaking Governing Council.
                                
 "Yes, it's done. He was chosen unanimously by ministers,"
the EU source said.
                                
 Praet, a 62-year-old Belgian, will replace Austrian Gertrude
Tumpel-Gugerell, who will step down from the board when her
non-renewable eight-year term ends. The other candidate for the
position had been Slovakia's Elena Kohutikova.
                                
 The board consists of the ECB president, vice-president and
four members. Praet's selection makes both the board and the
ECB's Governing Council all-male clubs for the first time in the
central bank's 12-year history.
                                
 A former International Monetary Fund economist, Praet is a
member of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and an
alternate member of the Bank for International Settlements'
Global Economy Meeting.
                                
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 For profiles of Praet and Kohutikova, click: [ID:nLDE71D0O9]
                                
 For a graphic on ECB Governing Council members, click:
                                
 http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/F/12/EZ_ECBHD.html  
                                
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 The decision on who would take Tumpel-Gugerell's board seat
played out against a backdrop of uncertainty as to who will
succeed ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet when his term expires
in October.
                                
 Bundesbank President Axel Weber had been the favourite to
replace Trichet but his shock withdrawal from the race last week
threw the contest wide open, feeding unease in financial markets
about divided European policymakers' ability to agree a
convincing solution to the euro zone debt crisis.
[ID:nLDE71914I]
                                
 Praet's nomination means one of the big four euro zone
countries -- Germany, France, Italy or Spain -- would be left
without a seat on the Executive Board were the next ECB
president to come from a small country.
 (Editing by Catherine Evans)