U.S. World Bank Nominee Heads To Russia, Peru

U.S. nominee for president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim

The U.S. nominee to become head of the World bank, Jim Yong Kim, is heading to Moscow and to Peru, on April 12-17 to seek support for his candidacy.

Kim, a public-health expert, has already been in Asia and parts of Latin and Central America to meet finance chiefs.

Two other candidates are also vying to succeed the current World Bank president, Robert Zoellick, when he steps down.

They are Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo.

The job has traditionally gone to an American.

Zoellick's successor is expected to be announced by the time the bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, hold semiannual meetings in Washington on April 20-22.

With reporting by Reuters