PARIS/WASHINGTON, May 24 (Reuters) – Developing countries said on Tuesday it was time to end the “obsolete” tradition of the International Monetary Fund always being led by a European, though France’s finance minister appeared to strengthen her lead in the race to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

China, India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa, known as the BRICs, jointly criticized European officials for suggesting the next IMF head should automatically be a European.

They said the selection should be based on competence, not nationality, and in a joint statement called for “abandoning the obsolete unwritten convention that requires that the head of the IMF be necessarily from Europe.”

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde plans to announce her candidacy on Wednesday after the European Union reached a consensus to back her, diplomatic sources told Reuters.

The French government said China would back Lagarde as the successor to Strauss-Kahn, who quit to fight sexual assault charges.

But a rift has opened with emerging nations that say it is time for Europe’s 65-year grip on the IMF to be loosened.

Mexico’s top central banker was quoted as saying some countries are warming to his candidacy, while South Africa and Kazakhstan may put forward their own candidates.

PARIS (Reuters) – China would support Finance Minister Christine Lagarde as the next IMF chief, the French government said on Tuesday, backing which would put her firmly in pole position to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Lagarde has emerged as the leading candidate to replace Strauss-Kahn, who quit last week to fight sexual assault charges in New York, although Mexico is pushing the claims of its central bank chief and many emerging nations have said it is time for Europe’s 60-year grip on the job to be loosened.

European governments want to retain their traditional control over the leadership of the multilateral lender while it is involved in major bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

A number, including Britain and Italy, have already said they would back Lagarde and Ireland added its support on Tuesday.

“It’s a European consensus,” France’s budget minister and government spokesman Francois Baroin told Europe 1 radio, asked about Lagarde as a possible contender for the job.

“The euro needs our attention, we need to have the Europeans (on board), the Chinese support the candidacy of Christine Lagarde,” he said.

China’s foreign ministry said it had no comment on whether Beijing would back Lagarde, a 55-year-old former lawyer, to lead the International Monetary Fund.

PARIS (Reuters) – A small group of French activists have organized an Internet campaign to send roses to the woman who has accused former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her in New York.

At www.une-rose-pour-ophelia.fr, well-wishers are invited to “Offer a rose to Ophelia,” a nickname for the 32-year-old chambermaid who has accused Strauss-Kahn of attacking her.

Her claims and his subsequent arrest last week set off an international firestorm, prompting the prominent economist’s resignation from the IMF and dashing his hopes of running for the French presidency in 2012.

French feminists have accused public figures and the media of showing more concern for Strauss-Kahn than the maid — whose accusations that he locked her in a bathroom and forced himself on her — have led to charges of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment.

“Dear Ophelia, a rose to forgive us for not thinking enough of you,” reads the statement on the website, which has attracted enough clicks since its launch Saturday to send some 400 roses to the woman, who is in protective custody in New York.

“We have talked a lot about our countryman, his detention, his emotions, and not enough about yours. That’s why, without presuming a ruling yet to be handed down and respecting the presumption of innocence, we send you these flowers,” it says.

Saturday, hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Paris against what they said was a flood of misogynist commentary from public figures. [nLDE74K069]

PARIS/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde’s candidacy for IMF chief gained momentum in Europe on Sunday while Mexico put forward its own candidate, ensuring competition for the top job.

The Mexican Finance Ministry said it would nominate central bank chief Agustin Carstens, placing a prominent emerging market name into the race to lead the global lender.

The International Monetary Fund has promised a merit-based process to replace former leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn of France, who is under house arrest in New York on charges he attempted to rape a hotel maid.

Europeans have held the top IMF job since its creation in 1945 and Lagarde is widely considered the front-runner.

French Interior Minister Claude Gueant, a top advisor to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said on Sunday Lagarde would make an excellent head of the Washington-based lender.

“And besides, many countries support her,” he told Europe 1 radio, becoming the first member of France’s cabinet to openly tout her credentials.

Germany and Britain also have signaled they would line up behind Lagarde, who has experience managing the euro-zone debt crisis the IMF is now focused on.

PARIS (Reuters) – French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde’s candidacy to head of the International Monetary Fund gained momentum on Sunday with a close ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy saying she already had several countries’ backing.

Interior Minister Claude Gueant, former chief of staff to Sarkozy and one of his top advisors for the past four years, said Lagarde would make an excellent head of the Washington-based lender, becoming the first member of France’s cabinet to openly tout her credentials.

The race for the leadership of the IMF was thrown open on Thursday, at a crucial time for Europe’s debt crisis and the fragile global recovery, when Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned after being arrested on charges of attempted rape.

Strauss-Kahn, a leading contender for the French presidency until his arrest, has denied the charges. His departure opened a tug of war between Europe and emerging economies, which argue it is time to end 65 years of European domination of the post.

“I hope it will be a European and Christine Lagarde obviously has all the qualities to be an excellent director of the IMF. And besides, many countries support her,” Gueant told Europe 1 radio.

While Lagarde’s departure for Washington would rob Sarkozy of a charismatic minister a year ahead of presidential polls in France, it would hand him a powerful ally for France’s ongoing presidency of the G20 and in euro zone debt-crisis talks.

With the IMF due to accept nominations from Monday, European powers have already started to close ranks behind a regional candidate, saying it is crucial the next managing director has knowledge of Europe, where the lender is heavily involved.

PARIS (Reuters) – Say “La Samaritaine” in this city and shopping-mad Parisians will wax nostalgic about a beloved department store which once boasted it had “everything.”

Now, the monument to retail therapy on the right bank of the Seine which has been closed since 2005, is set to undergo a three-year, 450 million euro ($641.9 million) redesign that will transform it into a luxury hotel, with adjacent buildings housing offices, public apartments, and of course, shops.

With an Art Deco facade and its name proudly displayed in big block letters, La Samaritaine was the most egalitarian of the “grand magasins,” or opulent department stores in the French capital, featuring a huge variety of goods for sale from flowers and bathing suits, to candies and hats.

Its doors closed in 2005, however, after the building fell afoul of safety codes and years of wrangling ensued between its current owner, luxury-goods conglomerate LVMH, the city of Paris and the heirs to La Samaritaine’s founders.

But the wrangling appears over, the new project has received the green light and construction should begin in early 2012, with a completion date targeted for mid-2014.

Despite the blueprint that promises to restore a Paris landmark building to its full glory, many feel a pang that it will no longer house France’s most famous department store.

“It’s over, and it’s really too bad because you could find everything there,” said 88-year-old Genevieve Cotty, who remembers visiting the store with her grandparents before World War II. “They had flowers, tombstones, hardware, furniture. It was really historic.”

PARIS (Reuters) – French Socialist politicians voiced outrage on Tuesday at the parading of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn handcuffed and unshaven in the United States before he has a chance to defend himself on charges of attempted rape.

Arrested on Saturday and charged with sexually assaulting a chambermaid at a luxury New York hotel, Strauss-Kahn was made by police to walk manacled in front of cameras on his way to a courthouse, and his appearance before a judge was televised.

Former Culture Minister Jack Lang described the treatment of the Socialist presidential frontrunner — whose political career is now in tatters — as a “lynching” that had “provoked horror and aroused disgust.”

The U.S. justice system, he said, was “politicized” and the judge appeared to have been determined to “make a Frenchman pay” by denying the head of the International Monetary Fund bail even though his lawyer had offered to post a $1 million bond.

To many Americans, the handling of Strauss-Kahn reflected an egalitarian tradition that all crime suspects get the same treatment, regardless of their wealth or power.

Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry denounced “degrading images” and said France was lucky to have a law on the presumption of innocence that bars media from showing defendants in handcuffs before they are convicted.

Former Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou, who drafted that law, called the pre-trial publicity “absolutely sickening.”

PARIS, May 15 (Reuters) – French voters of all stripes were shocked on Sunday by news that a man opinion polls had predicted could be the country’s next president had been charged with sexually assaulting a hotel chambermaid in the United States.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York after a maid alleged he had chased her naked down a hotel hallway, sexually assaulted her and tried to lock her in a hotel room. [nN15215355]

Strauss-Kahn’s wife Anne Sinclair said she did not believe the accusations for a second and had no doubt he would be proved innocent. His lawyer said he would plead not guilty.

“It’s distressing for France. We have two intellectually and professionally worthy men, (Jean-Claude) Trichet and him. It’s a pity to ruin a career with sex,” said Odile, a painter who lives near Strauss-Kahn’s home in Paris’s plush 16th district.

A former finance minister and managing director of the International Monetary Fund throughout the global economic crisis, Strauss-Kahn is one of France’s highest-profile figures along with European Central Bank Governor Jean-Claude Trichet.

“His path has been almost regal. He was at the top of the polls. He was the only one that could take on (President Nicolas) Sarkozy. I find it bizarre,” said Eric Morel, 65, who also lives nearby. Strauss-Kahn, 62, has numerous backers in France’s political and business elite who believed his prestigious international career and erudite image would bring a healthy change after Sarkozy, criticised by some of being too brash and impulsive.

Instead, his arrest, described by Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry as a “thunderbolt”, removes the toughest rival to Sarkozy for the April 2012 presidential race and threatens to stain the coming election campaign. [nLDE74E02I]

PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) saw its capacity for acquisitions boosted by a record 12.2 billion euro (10.7 billion pound) cash pile on Friday, weeks after governments agreed to bail out losses on a major defence project.

Swelled by deposits from airlines ready to invest in new aircraft, the growing riches of Europe’s largest aerospace company confirm an industry rebound which sent its shares up 5 percent on Friday, together with upbeat quarterly results.

But the cash surplus is also potentially embarrassing for EADS which last month closed a deal with European nations for a 3.5 billion euro bailout of its A400M army plane and plans to use a disputed system of state loans for its A350 airliner.

In Germany, opposition Greens accused EADS of strong-arming European governments into agreeing to provide the extra funding by suggesting the Franco-German-led company could collapse.

“It doesn’t match up. On one side EADS insists on a bailout, arguing that the company would face the end otherwise. But their balance sheet speaks a completely different language,” said Omid Nouripour, a member of the German parliament and defence expert for the opposition Greens.

“Mr (former defence minister Karl-Theodor) zu Guttenberg seems to have let himself be blackmailed with false figures,” Nouripour told Reuters in Berlin.

EADS chief Executive Louis Gallois defended the bailout, under which some of the money will be paid back from exports.

PARIS, May 13 (Reuters) – Airbus parent EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) saw its capacity for acquisitions boosted by a record 12.2 billion euro (17.3 billion) cash pile disclosed with upbeat results on Friday, weeks after governments bailed out a troubled project.

The news could create a headache for the company, which in April signed a deal with seven European nations for a 3.5 billion euro bailout of its A400M military aircraft programme and is expected to receive European loans for its A350 airliner.

Chief Executive Louis Gallois defended the bailout.

“I don’t think it (the cash surplus) is changing anything. The bailout money is to reduce the level of losses we have,” Gallois told Reuters during a meeting of business leaders.

The world’s second largest aerospace group after Boeing (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) beat expectations with a strong first quarter at Airbus, which is considering increasing its production to meet demand.

EADS said the rebound fuelled signs of recovery, which has bounced back strongly from its financial-crisis recession. Shares in the company rose almost five percent.

However the speed of the recovery has handed EADS a dilemma over a cash surplus swelled by deposits on airliner sales.