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US President George W. Bush affirmed his support on Friday for the World Bank president who is trapped in a scandal about personally dictating the terms of a promotion and pay raise for his lover.

 

"The president has full confidence in Paul Wolfowitz," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters at the daily briefing.

 

Wolfowitz has "apologized for the matter," Perino said. "We expect him to remain as World Bank president."

 

The scandal centers on Wolfowitz's lover, Shaha Riza, a World Bank staffer.

 

Recently released documents revealed that on Wolfowitz's personal direction, Riza was given raises that took her annual pay package to nearly US$200,000 when she was reassigned from the World Bank to the US State Department in 2005.

 

Her pay increase was more than double the amount allowed by staff rules, according to the World Bank's Staff Association.

 

At present, Riza is still on the bank's payroll even if she no longer works there.

 

On Thursday, calls for Wolfowitz's resignation resounded through the World Bank's atrium when he addressed employee representatives.

 

Wolfowitz apologized, and said he would accept whatever "remedies" are proposed by the board of the bank.

 

The probe of Riza's promotion is overshadowing the semi-annual meetings of the World Bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund.

 

Wolfowitz, 63, was an aide to then US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the run-up to the Iraq war.

 

He was named by Bush to the World Bank post in 2005.

 

Some analysts predicted that eventually the bank's board will ask him to resign since his credibility has been deeply undermined.

 

The World Bank's president is nominated by the White House for a five-year term and must be a US citizen.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2007)