LONDON: Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair could be a contender for the new president of the World Bank, a post traditionally reserved for an American, a former bank executive said on Friday.

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel prize-winning economist and former senior vice president and chief economist at the Bank, told BBC radio that Blair “is one of the people that is clearly being discussed.” Blair has just held talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington on a range of foreign policy issues. A spokesman for Blair, who leaves office June 27, declined to comment on the remarks, which come after World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz announced he would step down on June 30 to end a favouritism scandal.

“There is a large amount of wild and, in the main, inaccurate speculation out there and it is not going to be wise for us to comment on any of it,” said the spokesman. Stiglitz said the World Bank could appoint Blair. “It wouldn't rule him out,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.—AFP