The International Monetary Fund's board has elected French finance minister Christine Lagarde as the new managing director of the global lender. In a statement, the IMF said she would serve a five-year term starting on July 5.
Her win was assured after emerging powers China, Russia and Brazil declared their support for her and the US followed with its endorsement ahead of the meeting of the 24-member board.
Her only rival for the job had been Mexico's central bank governor, Agustin Carstens, who was unable to win enough support to break Europe's 64-year hold on the IMF post.
Today's decision marks the end of a process that began in May after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as IMF managing director to defend himself against charges of sexual assault and attempted rape. He denies the charges.
The race has been one of the most hotly contested succession battles in IMF history. In a convention dating back to the creation of the IMF and World Bank after World War Two, Europe has always held the top IMF job, while the World Bank's top post has always gone to an American.
Developing countries have warned against another US-European stitch-up, but some potential candidates from emerging markets decided not to step up because they did not feel they had a fair chance at the job.
Fears of contagion over an escalating debt crisis in Greece have played in Lagarde's favour over the last several weeks because of her political punch across Europe, IMF board officials said.
She will have to immediately be able to deal with further IMF-EU financing to keep Greece afloat and focus on potentially thorny IMF spillover reports that analyse the economic and policy actions among the world's major economies.
Lingering resentment over the outcome of the latest election process will also require the new managing director to act quickly to reassure developing nations they have a stake in decision-making at the IMF.
