Euro MPs put pressure on World Bank's Wolfowitz

STRASBOURG: Several European MPs on Wednesday urged EU leaders to call for the resignation of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, currently embroiled in a pay scandal involving his girlfriend, a former bank employee.

The call came ahead of an EU-US summit in Washington on Monday, with the Euro MPs saying the meeting should be used to press for the removal of the former US deputy secretary of defence.

"The World Bank has a crucial role to play in fighting corruption. In light of the current allegations, Wolfowitz has to go," Dutch Euro MP Jan Wiersma told colleagues in Strasbourg during a debate on transatlantic relations ahead of the summit.

A day earlier Martin Schulz, leader of the parliament's socialist group, told reporters that Wolfowitz's position was "untenable in the middle- or long-term."

Graham Watson, leader of the liberal and democrats alliance in the European Parliament, said the EU negotiators "should dare to take the initiative" in Washington.

"Our message for him must be -- it is time for you to go," he said.

By contrast Joseph Paul, head of the biggest group in parliament, the Conservative European People's Party, did not mention Wolfowitz in his speech.

The revelation that Wolfowitz arraned a salary worth nearly USD 200,000 for his girlfriend Shaha Riza in 2005 has left him open to accusations of hypocrisy as he steers a controversial campaign against corruption in the World Bank's lending.