US lawmakers yesterday pressed President Barack Obama to nominate economist Jeffrey Sachs as the next World Bank president as the White House scrambled to pick a different candidate ahead of next week’s deadline.

In a letter to Obama, 27 fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives said that Sachs, whose self-declared candidacy has drawn a number of endorsements from around the world, has the leadership skills for the job.

Meanwhile the White House appeared still not ready to submit its own nominee to run the global development bank, a week after leaking out a shortlist of three high-powered possibilities— none of them Sachs.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 18th March 2012