European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said Friday he was interested in running the IMF and called for the post of director to be attributed transparently.

"The post of director of the International Monetary Fund is a post I am interested in," Lamy told AFP by phone from Finland.

EU finance ministers who have gathered at the Punchestown racetrack outside Dublin are holding talks to decide who should succeed Germany's Horst Koehler as head of the IMF.

Lamy said he had made his interest known to the French government but had not received its backing in return.

Since the founding of the IMF and the World Bank in 1944, the managing director of the IMF has by custom been a European and the president of its sister institution an American.

So far only one European candidate has formally presented himself for the post of IMF managing director -- Spain's outgoing Economy Minister Rodrigo Rato.

Italy has suggested that outgoing EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti would be an ideal candidate, but the French head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Jean Lemierre, is widely considered the frontrunner should he stand.

Lamy urged above all that the nomination process be above board.