Embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz made an emotional appeal to stay on as World Bank president, but Germany stepped up pressure on him to resign.
WASHINGTON/BERLIN: Paul Wolfowitz made an emotional appeal to stay on as World Bank president, but Germany stepped up pressure on him to resign, saying he would not be welcome at a forum the bank is holding next week in Berlin.
Wolfowitz made the appeal in a last pitch before the bank's board decides whether he has the credibility to lead the institution set up to help fight poverty.
The US government failed to rally support among its key allies for a strategy aimed at saving Wolfowitz his job, even as a bank panel found that he violated ethics rules in pushing through a promotion and pay rise for his bank-employee companion Shaha Riza.
"He would do the bank and himself a great service if he resigned," German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, one of Wolfowitz's strongest critics, told reporters.
"It would be the best thing for all concerned."
Should he fail to give up his post, she advised him not to take part in a two-day World Bank forum on development aid for Africa which starts Monday in the German capital.
"I would not advise him to if he's still in office," she said, referring to Wolfowitz.
Wolfowitz remained defiant on Tuesday as he appeared before the 24-nation World Bank board, which will resume a meeting on Wednesday to decide his fate.
"I respectfully submit, to criticize my actions or to find them as a basis for a loss of confidence would be grossly unfair and would be contrary to the evidence we have presented to you," Wolfowitz said in a statement to the board.
"Rather than fix blame for something that wasn't wrong, we should all acknowledge our responsibility as I have acknowledged mine," he said, conceding he made mistakes.
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