Wolfowitz on way out of World Bank?

WASHINGTON - Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is negotiating an agreement to resign, according to an official familiar with the talks.

His departure would include an acknowledgment from the bank that he doesn't bear sole responsibility for the controversy surrounding a generous pay package for his girlfriend, the official said.

The negotiations took place as the bank's board deliberated Wolfowitz's fate yesterday afternoon.

The official said Wolfowitz wanted the bank to accept some responsibility for conflicts of interest cited against him by a special bank panel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate state of negotiations. The bank uses loans and grants to fight poverty around the world.

It was not clear whether the bank's 24-member board would accept Wolfowitz's terms. It is up to the board to decide what action should be taken in the matter.

Pressure on Wolfowitz to resign has grown since the bank panel report, released Monday, regarding his handling of the 2005 pay package of bank employee Shaha Riza.

Wolfowitz has maintained that he acted in good faith.

The bank panel said the board must consider whether Wolfowitz "will be able to provide the leadership" to ensure that the bank achieves its mission of fighting poverty.

The 185-nation World Bank provides more than $20 billion a year for projects - such as building dams and roads, bolstering education and fighting disease. It was created in 1945 to rebuild Europe after World War II and has evolved into a major development organization. A centerpiece program provides interest-free loans to the world's poorest countries.

Before taking over the bank nearly two years ago, Wolfowitz was the No. 2 official at the Pentagon and played a lead role in mapping out the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The White House, which picked Wolfowitz for the World Bank post, indicated for the first time on Tuesday that it was willing to consider new leadership.

By tradition, the bank has been run by an American, with the approval of the bank's board. The bank's sister agency, the International Monetary Fund, is headed by a European.

The United States, the bank's biggest financial contributor, keenly wants to keep that decades-old tradition intact.

Wolfowitz canceled a planned trip to a bank-sponsored development conference in Bled, Slovenia, scheduled for today and tomorrow to work with the board.

In a last-ditch plea to save his job, Wolfowitz appeared before the board on Tuesday. "You still have the opportunity to avoid long-term damage by resolving this matter in a fair and equitable way that recognizes that we all tried to do the right thing, however imperfectly we went about it," he told the board.

Riza worked for the bank before Wolfowitz took over as president in June 2005. She was moved to the State Department to avoid a conflict of interest, but stayed on the bank's payroll. Her salary went from close to $133,000 to $180,000. With subsequent raises, it rose to $193,590.

The panel concluded that the salary increase Riza received "at Mr. Wolfowitz's direction was in excess of the range" allowed under bank rules.

European members - led by France, Germany and the Netherlands - are pushing for Wolfowitz to resign. *