WASHINGTON, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - The World Bank board approved Robert Zoellick as president Monday.
Zoellick, proposed by U.S. President George Bush, will replace Paul Wolfowitz, who is forced to resign June 30 after waging a tenacious fight to hold onto his job following a scandal in which he secured a large pay raise for his companion. Zoellick will take over from July 1.
A former U.S. trade representative and most recently a Goldman Sachs executive, Zoellick is widely expected to clean up the World Bank's operations by engaging other organizations to help it implement its global mission.
As the U.S. trade representative between 2001 and 2005, Zoellick completed negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization (WTO), and developed a strategy to initiate new trade negotiations at Doha, Qatar, in what became known as the Doha round.
Later as deputy secretary of state, he became the Bush administration's main author of its China policy as well as of its approach to Darfur.
Following a 2005 visit to a Darfur refugee camp, he came to be seen as the administration's most ardent advocate on the situation in the Sudanese province.
