Kazakh Central Bank chief Grigory Marchenko announced on Friday that he was withdrawing his bid to head the International Monetary Fund chief, CNN reported.
Marchenko told CNN it was "more or less obvious" that French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde would be selected for the position.
The IMF is traditionally headed by a representative of Western Europe, though the idea of a non-European director is becoming increasingly popular.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) put forward Marchenko, a Moscow-trained economist, as its candidate to replace former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned earlier this month after being arrested in New York on sexual assault charges.
Attempts to unify around a single alternative to Lagarde had failed, Marchenko told CNN, and it is therefore "better to withdraw and not to put some of the countries into embarrassing positions."
Lagarde is "a very good candidate, no doubt about that," the Kazakh official said.
Among other potential nominees for the post are former Turkish Finance Minister Kemal Dervis, Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer and Mexico's Central Bank Chief Agustin Carstens.
The IMF has said it intends to make a decision on its new head by June 30.
MOSCOW, June 10 (RIA Novosti)
