Lagarde expected before IMF Board next week

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is expected to be interviewed by the Board of the International Monetary Fund in Washington next week for the position of managing director.

Lagarde will be in Washington, site of the IMF headquarters, from Tuesday to Thursday, according to her official agenda.

A Finance Ministry official declined to give details of her meetings, but sources in Paris and Washington have said they expect her to meet the board next week.

The IMF, which has said it will not discuss the interviews in advance, declined to comment.

Backed by the European Union, the Group of Eight and some African countries, Lagarde is the frontrunner to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who quit as IMF chief after being charged in New York last month with trying to rape a hotel maid.

The IMF wants to name a new managing director by June 30 and its board has said it will consider two candidates: Lagarde and Mexican Central Bank Governor Agustin Carstens, who has the support of a dozen Latin American countries.

The United States has not endorsed either candidate but is widely expected to support Lagarde, a former high-flying corporate lawyer, in what has already been one of the most hotly contested races in IMF history with both candidates criss-crossing the world to drum up support.

Emerging market powers like Russia, India and China want an end to Europe's grip on the top job at the international lender, under a gentleman's agreement that keeps an American running the World Bank, yet some emerging countries feel Carstens' policy views are too conservative.

The United States and Europe hold 48 percent of votes at the IMF.