Berlin has yet to decide which candidate it will support to replace the outgoing European Central Bank president, a German government spokesman said on Friday, in response to newspaper reports that Berlin supports Mario Draghi, according to Reuters. "Jean-Claude Trichet's time in office lasts until the end of October, and the decision will come at the next European Council meeting in June," Steffen Seibert said at a regular news conference. "The German government will express its support for a possible candidate in due time," he added. "We have already made public the criteria we consider important for a candidate. The situation has not changed." German daily Bild reported late on Thursday that government sources in the chancellery said Chancellor Angela Merkel had abandoned the search for a German candidate for Trichet's post. After citing the sources' position that Bank of Italy chief Draghi was the "most German of all remaining candidates", the paper pictured him in a photo montage with a Prussian spiked helmet. "This is an extremely complicated process, and I'm sure that Merkel is weighing all kinds of alternatives in making the decision," said John Kornblum, former head of investment bank Lazard's German operations and a previous U.S. ambassador to Germany. The Wall Street Journal Europe reported on Friday that Merkel now supported Draghi and would try to sell his nomination to a sceptical German public by arguing that his southern European origins will be an asset in persuading the euro's southern members to adopt stricter financial discipline. ING's senior euro zone economist Martin van Vliet said that chances were now "increasingly remote" that anyone other than Draghi would inherit the post of ECB president. "The hard facts are that an increasing number of key euro zone countries are backing Draghi," he said, adding that "for the market, the most important qualification is a candidate's quality and here he has an impressive track record." -- SPA
