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IMF: The G8 does not comment on the nomination of Christine Lagarde

REUTERS - Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday defended the nomination of the French Minister of Economy Christine Lagarde in the general direction and hoped that the IMF could reconsider this post to a European.

The French president said at a press conference on the sidelines of the G8 summit in Deauville that the current financial problems of Europe warranted.

"I'm European and you see the news today is more money on the side of Europe that the emerging side," he said in response to a question from a journalist on the attitudes of Brazilian emerging countries.

"So we think it appropriate that the IMF Managing Director be a European," he added.

The tradition is, so far, that the Director General of the International Monetary Fund comes from the Old Continent.But the big emerging countries, absent from the G8 and the summit of Deauville, begin to challenge it.

This is not the G8 to choose a successor to French Dominique Strauss-Kahn, pursued by the U.S. court in a case of sexual assault, said Nicolas Sarkozy.

He has ensured that heads of State and Government of the eight richest countries of the world had not addressed the appointment of a new IMF Managing Director in the meeting room on the first day of the summit of Deauville.

It also confirms that French diplomatic source not discussed in the final declaration.

But the French president admitted that the subject had been discussed on the sidelines of the summit of Deauville, at the bilateral talks of G8 leaders.

"Manageable risk"

He himself began the day with two of these interviews with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and will have its American counterpart Barack Obama on Friday morning.

"We have not discussed in plenary. Do we have discussed in the bilateral? If I told you we had not mentioned you would not believe me and you would absolutely right," Has he quipped to reporters.

According to the feedback gathered, "everyone thinks that Christine Lagarde is a woman of great quality," he added."I drew the conclusion that in any case they thought it would be (...) a very good CEO."

Christine Lagarde has announced his candidacy Wednesday, the eve of the G8 summit.Nicolas Sarkozy said there was still a "long march" to do.

However, he dismissed the idea that any judicial investigation for the role of economy minister in an arbitration dispute rendered in favor of businessman Bernard Tapie could hinder this application.

"We are in the age of transparency and we must accept this reality, it does not shock me," he said.

"And so of course all the problems are discussed and the greater transparency, especially as regards Christine Lagarde (...) (...) whose risks are easily manageable in our view, as shown by a number legal analysis to be provided by Ms. Lagarde."

He assured that there was no "tension" with France's partners in this regard.