IMF top job goes global Fight

That could pit the fast-growing markets of Asia and Latin America against Europe.

Developing countries are seeking more influence on the world stage as their economic clout increases.

Mr Strauss-Kahn has been charged with attempted rape in New York.

European officials, however, say the debt problems in the region mean any replacement should come from Europe.

The current structure for leadership at the IMF and the World Bank is one where the former is headed by a European and the latter by an American.

"There is growing disquiet, particularly among emerging nations about this division of roles," said Jan Randolph, head of sovereign risk analysis at IHS Global Insight.

He says China could use its influence to support an emerging market candidate for the top IMF job.

He led a tripling of Fund financial resources, and carved a crucial role for it in Europe's crisis, where it has joined bailouts of Greece, Ireland and, as of Monday, Portugal.

Strauss-Kahn also helped set a new ideological tone at the Fund.

In April he said it was no longer rigidly opposed to countries using capital controls defensively -- a position that in the 1990s had angered a number of developing countries, which accused the IMF of favoring advanced economies.

He also stressed the need to consider the impact of financial adjustment policies on job creation.

"It's probably too much to say that it's a jobless recovery, but it's certainly a recovery with not enough jobs," he said of the recent turnaround of many economies.

Another key change came with the acceptance that the IMF and World Bank leadership would no longer be monopolized by, respectively, European and US officials.

For more than half of the years since 1946 French men have led the Fund.

But in recent years rising economies have expanded their voting power on the fund's board, and in recent months numerous names from developing economies have circulated for eventually replacing one or both of its leaders.

Possible successor

Although Strauss-Kahn has not officially resigned, most analysts expect that he will do so.

John Lipsky, who was named as the IMF's acting managing director, has already said he will step down in August, when his term ends.

Names of potential candidates for the top job are already being bandied about.

Singapore's finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, former South African finance minister Trevor Manuel and Kemal Dervis, Turkey's former minister of economic affairs are possible successor, according to former IMF official Eswar Prasad.