World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz (left), Mexico's Secretary of Finance Agustin Carstens (centre) and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato hold a closing news conference on the final day of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meeting in Washington Sunday. - Reuters

Global finance Ministers wrapped up their spring meetings, with calls for World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's resignation overshadowing his own urgent appeal for greater internationaldevelopment aid.

Press conferences throughout the weekend intended to highlight work by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in fighting poverty were dominated by questions about Wolfowitz's viability after he admitted his involvement in a huge pay increase awarded to a close female friend.

A communiqu issued Sunday by the steering committee of both institutions at a press conference attended by Wolfowitz and IMF head Rodrigo de Rato outlined progress in reducing poverty and goals.

But it also pointedly referred to the pay increase.

Critics have asked how Wolfowitz could continue leading the World Bank's fight against corruption since it emerged that he secured a US$193,590 (E143,060) job for his companion, Shaha Riza, at the United States State Department soon after he joined the World Bank in 2005.

The steering committee said the issue was "of great concern to us all" and called on the bank's board to complete its work of looking into the matter.

"We have to ensure that the bank can effectively carry out its mandate and maintain its credibility and reputation as well as the motivation of its staff," the committee said.

Wolfowitz said he would stay on.

"The bank has important work to do and I will continue to do it," he said.

Officials attending the meetings expressed frustration throughout the weekend that the crisis over Wolfowitz's leadership had distracted attention from important work, including reforming the institutions' membership structure, refinancing programmes and getting donors to meet commitments for increasing aid.

Credibility to lead

They asked whether Wolfowitz would have the credibility to lead in those missions at a time that international support for poverty reduction seems, at least by one measure, to be waning.

Wolfowitz and Development Committee Chairman Agustin Carstens, Mexico's Finance Minister, raised concern that wealthy governments are failing to deliver on promises to increase spending on development aid.

"Thedonors are now unfortunately in a position of not fulfilling their promises," Wolfowitz said.

Should he stay on, his job will be made more difficult by staff members in revolt. After Sunday's news conference, Alison Cave, the head of the World Bank Staff Association, which represents 7,000 of the bank's employees, called for his resignation.

"We do not see how he can possibly regain the trust of the staff," she said.

Already unpopular in many international circles as an architect of U.S. President George W. Bush's Iraq war strategy, Wolfowitz spent much of the weekend working behind the scenes at meetings with Finance Ministers and central bankers to shore up his support.

The United States, Britain and France, whose governments have a major role in bank operations, said it was important to await the outcome of the board investigation into Wolfowitz's actions. Having survived the weekend meetings, Wolfowitz said he would do just that.

- AP