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WASHINGTON - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said today he was resigning as of June 30, ending a protracted battle over his stewardship sparked by a promotion he arranged for his companion.
"The poorest people in the world ... deserve the very best we can deliver," Wolfowitz said in a statement issued by the bank's board. "Now it is necessary to find a way to move forward."
"I am announcing today that I will resign as president of the World Bank Group," he added.
The White House said President George W Bush would quickly announce a new candidate to head the poverty-fighting institution.
The presidency of the World Bank is traditionally held by an American, and Bush intends to continue that tradition, a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Wolfowitz's resignation ends a tumultuous two years at the bank where he was dogged by his legacy as an architect of the Iraq war, despite focusing attention on Africa's needs and launching a controversial campaign against corruption.
New Zealander Graeme Wheeler, a World Bank managing director, found himself a central figure in Wolfowitz's fate.
Wheeler was not the whistle blower who revealed the Wolfowitz influence in his girlfriend's appointment, but he did publicly call on him to resign.
In doing so, the man New Zealand colleagues remember as a straight shooter took a stand in line with good old fashioned public service ethics.
Wolfowitz had said he should not have had to shoulder all the blame for the promotion and pay raise for his companion Shaha Riza, a World Bank Middle East expert.
He had resisted heavy pressure to resign without a resolution that also cleared his name, arguing that he followed advice from a board ethics committee and the board should admit its errors.
In his statement today Wolfowitz, 63, said he was pleased the World Bank board had accepted his assurance he acted ethically and in good faith.
A report by a board panel that looked into Wolfowitz's role in the promotion concluded on Monday that he broke several rules along the way and that terms of Riza's pay increase and promotion exceeded bank norms.
The report did concede that the board should have dealt with potential conflict of interest issues before Wolfowitz assumed his position and that the bank's own governance procedures should be examined.
Pressure for Wolfowitz to resign had increased over the past few days from European and other governments, including in Germany, where Wolfowitz was due to attend a meeting of finance chiefs from the Group of Eight industrial nations this weekend.
The G8 nations -- the United States, Japan, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Britain and Russia -- are among the bank's largest shareholders and it biggest funders.
- REUTERS, NZPA
