Free Republic

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland will put forward former prime minister Marek Belka as a candidate to head the International Monetary Fund, Warsaw's finance ministry said in a statement today. A meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels has so far failed to generate a clear candidate to take over at one of the world's two big non-governmental financial institutions. 'In Brussels today, a representative of the finance ministry will officially support the candidacy of Marek Belka for chief of the International Monetary Fund,' ministry spokesman Jakub Lutyk said in a statement. A source with the EU's Portuguese presidency...

WARSAW, Poland - Exit polls indicated Polish voters ousted the scandal-prone left-wing government of Prime Minister Marek Belka in elections Sunday and gave a broad majority to two center-right parties that promise tax cuts and clean government. Projections based on exit polls for Polish government television showed the socially conservative Law and Justice Party with 27.6 percent and the free-market Civic Platform with 24.1 percent; the governing Democratic Left Alliance lagged far behind with 11.3 percent. The results showed voters eager for change in choosing the two right-wing parties, both of which have roots in the Solidarity trade union movement...

WARSAW, Poland Poland's premier is heading to the United States for talks on Iraq with President Bush. He says he plans to explore ways to reorganize the Polish-led multinational force in Iraq in the wake of troop withdrawals by Spain and other countries. The prime minister (Marek Belka) served as the director for economic policy for the U-S-led provisional authority in Iraq until March. As he left Warsaw, he told The Associated Press he plans to talk to Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others about the prospects of transferring more military duties to Iraqis in the Polish zone. Poland...

WARSAW : Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski named Marek Belka, a former finance minister and the country's top official in Iraq, as his preferred choice to succeed the embattled Leszek Miller as prime minister. The deeply unpopular Miller announced he would be stepping down on May 2, the day after Poland joins the European Union, triggering a political crisis and jitters in financial markets. Advertisement But in a sign of the difficulties his choice might face being accepted in the parliament, Kwasniewski said consultations with political parties would continue on Tuesday. "Today Marek Belka is my candidate, but discussions continue," Kwasniewski...