Germany's red-green coalition cabinet indicated on November 10 its Finance State Secretary Caio Koch-Weser would bid for the top post in the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

After Michel Camdessus, the current IMF chief, announced he would step down early next year "for personal reasons" in Washington Tuesday evening, "a German has a good chance now," a report by the Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) news agency said.

Camdessus has served in the international currency institution for 12-and-a-half years.

Koch-Weser, 55, was an acknowledged financial expert and former top manager of the World Bank. He was "valued" in Washington, the report said.

"There is still enough time to make a deal," the DPA quoted sources in the ruling coalition as saying.

The cabinet failed to comment on any personal speculation but said it would be in Germany's interest if a German were elected to the post.

"It is in the German interest that the job is filled by the right man or woman," said government spokesman Uwe-Karsten Heye at a routine press briefing in Berlin.

"The federal government will be lucky if a German candidate is supported by the majority in the IMF", he said.

German media also indicated other names, including Juergen Stark, the vice president of the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank.

Stark himself strongly demanded a German manage the IMF, saying Germany, Eurpoe's largest economy, had been "under represented" in the institution.

"It is too long that the Frenchman has been playing the leading role in the IMF," Stark told the Suedwestrundfunk radio. But he deliberately avoided to mention any name.