India's Finance Minister P Chidambaram is the front-runner to head the International Monetary Fund's Monetary and Financial Committee -- the IMF's influential policymaking body -- according to informed sources here. Britain's Prime Minister and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown had held the post for nearly a decade.

Sources said that Chidambaram's candidacy is being backed by officials in the Bush Administration and also leading US economic think-tanks like the Peterson Institute for International Economics. If the finance minister manages to clinch the coveted position, he would be the first candidate from a developing country to occupy this seat, which has traditionally been the preserve of finance ministers from the developed nations.

The IMF's Monetary and Financial Committee literally holds the purse strings for the transfer of resources to developing nations.

According to sources, US Treasury Secretary Henry M Paulson, who met Chidambaram on September 25 in Washington to discuss bilateral and global financial issues, was in favour of supporting Chidambaram. However, the sources cautioned that the White House will make its recommendation on the suggestions of its Council of Economic Advisers, and this could result in the position staying in the hands of the developed world. Also in the running for the post -- vacant since July after Brown became the prime minister of the United Kingdom -- are the finance ministers of Canada and Italy.

Besides his meeting with Paulson, Chidambaram also visited Germany and Belgium last week, and sources say that he may have canvassed for the support of these countries.

The sources added that German Chancellor Angela Merkel may break tradition by favouring his candidacy. Merkel is apparently, "quite impressed by Chidambaram and his role in being an architect of India's galloping economy,"

In a reflection of the support Chidambaram has among progressive and influential economic think-tanks in the US, C Fred Bergsten, Director of the Peterson Institute, said the fact that Chidambaram was a front-runner for this post, "is a clear indicator of the esteem in which he is held."

Bergsten, a former assistant secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and erstwhile Assistant for International Economic Affairs to the National Security Council, said, "Chidambaram is being considered very actively and this is a clear acknowledgment of his caliber and track record as one of the key architects of economic reforms in India since the early 1990s."