Tough questions for Wolfowitz

Last Modified: 16 Apr 2007
By: Emily Reuben

The embattled World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz is still facing calls for his resignation despite a defiant vow to stay.

Mr Wolfowitz admitted helping his girlfriend win a promotion and a substantial pay rise. He said the board was continuing its investigations into the matter but in the meantime he vowed to stay on to continue what he called "important work."

It was a distinctly uncomfortable looking Paul Wolfowitz who came before the cameras at the spring meeting of the IMF and the World Bank. A man fighting to stay in his job, he didn't have to wait long for the difficult questions to start.

Because just hours before, the World Bank's Development Committee has issued a statement expressing deep concern about maintaining credibility in the face of its president's wrongdoings.

A former close advisor to George W Bush and one of the architects of the Iraq war Wolfowitz has apologised for helping his partner Shaha Riza who worked at the bank to get a promotion and pay rise - but says there was work too important at the bank for him to go.

So far the bank has stopped short of asking him to step down. But the Board has said it will move quickly to decide his future.

Paul Wolfowitz in years

1943 Born in Brooklyn, New York.

1961-65 Bachelor's degree in mathematics and chemistry, Cornell University.

1968 Married Clare Selgin (divorced 2002).

1970-72 Yale University lecturer, Department of Political Science.

1977-80 Deputy assistant secretary of defence. Helped set up US military central command. Work included assessment study of the possibility of Soviet forces seizing oilfields in the Persian Gulf.

1981-2 State department policy planning staff head.

1983-6 Assistant secretary for east Asian and Pacific affairs.

1986-89 US ambassador to Indonesia, the country with the world's fourth largest Muslim population.

1989-93 Under-secretary for defence policy. Worked under the then defence secretary, Dick Cheney. Helped formulate military strategy in the Gulf war and in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse.

2001-5 Deputy secretary of defence. One of the main architects of the invasion of Iraq.

2005+ World Bank president. Vowed on taking up the post to tackle corruption in certain countries that were receiving World Bank aid.