The European Union decided on Tuesday to back former French finance minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF) amid call for the post to be open to non-Europeans.

The EU's Portuguese presidency said in a message sent to the media that finance ministers from 27 member states had agreed to support Strauss-Kahn as the IMF's new managing director when they met here Tuesday.

The current IMF chief Rodrigo Rato announced last month that he would step down in October for personal reasons, ending his five-year term two years early.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde confirmed that Strauss-Kahn had been named as the EU's official candidate for the top job at the IMF, saying his caliber and international experience won him broad support.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn has become the Europeans' candidate for managing director of the IMF," Lagarde told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting of EU finance ministers, "and that will allow him to start a campaign and consultation process with all the members of the IMF."

Under a so-called gentleman's deal, the IMF is traditionally led by a European, while its sister organization, the World Bank, is headed by an American.

Both institutions have been under increasing pressure to undergo internal reforms by giving more say to other members and developing countries, including the choice of their respective leaders.

The World Bank last month unanimously approved former U.S. deputy secretary of state Robert Zoellick as its new president, despite heated debate over the successor to Paul Wolfowitz, who was forced to step down for his promotion of his girlfriend.

In response to the nomination of Strauss-Kahn, British Finance Minister Alistair Darling said, "I think that Dominique Strauss-Kahn would be a very credible candidate, but the British government wants to see what other candidates there may be put forward from other parts of the IMF."

He told British newspaper the Guardian on Tuesday that the job needed to be open to non-Europeans.

"I don't think Europe can simply say, 'that position is ours and we are not prepared to discuss it with anyone else,'" he said in an interview, "the mood out there is for reform."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had been lobbying hard for Strauss-Kahn to succeed Rato. At present, the French are in charge of several international economic institutions, such as the World Trade Organization, the European Central Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

If Strauss-Kahn gets appointed, which is certain to be, he will become the fourth Frenchman to head the IMF.

The 58-year-old socialist lost to Segolene Royal in the Socialists' nomination in this year's presidential elections, but was regarded as a front-runner to challenge Sarkozy in five years' time.

Strauss-Kahn, who was finance minister under the socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin from 1997 to 1999, was credited with efforts to privatize France Telecom and Air France and his key role in the introduction of the euro.

He gladly accepted the nomination. "I want to express warm thanks to the 27 (EU member states) for the confidence they have shown in me," he said in a statement.