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New Delhi - Agustin Carstens, the Mexican candidate to be the next head of the IMF, said Friday that the decision must be made on merit, as he visited India during his underdog campaign to secure the role.
Nominations to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director of the International Monetary Fund close later Friday. French rival Christine Lagarde is widely seen as the odds-on favourite.
But the Mexican central bank chief is hoping to tap into discontent about Europe's historic lock on the IMF job.
"The membership of the fund needs to assure us they will take a decision based on merit," Carstens told reporters in New Delhi.
"I presented my credentials, the international community knows me and I think I have the capacity to be the head of the fund."
Echoing Lagarde's schedule in Delhi earlier this week, Carstens met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee before briefing the press.
"It was a very productive discussion," he said. "Both the prime minister and the finance minister expressed their view that we need to be in contact in the days to come.
"They said at this stage they are going to evaluate the candidates."
Carstens has close knowledge of the IMF - both on the receiving end as Mexico's finance minister, and as IMF deputy managing director from 2003 to 2006.
He repeated his pitch that he was the "developing world" candidate to head the Washington-based lender and that he wanted "emerging markets and emerging countries to have stronger representation in the organisation."
After a stop on Monday in Washington, Carstens will then follow in Lagarde's footsteps by visiting another emerging Asian giant, China.
China and India were non-committal this week about Lagarde's candidacy, and both have argued that the IMF job should be based on ability and also better reflect changes to the world economy.
Under a tacit transatlantic agreement, the IMF leadership has been held by a European since its founding in 1945, while an American has occupied the top job at the World Bank.
Big emerging players argue the post-war arrangement should be consigned to history. But the so-called BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - have failed to rally behind an alternative to Lagarde.
Carstens said his outsider's campaign was inspired by the principle that emerging nations had to run for the top job.
"If we never take some risks and present a candidate, we will never get what we want. If I felt that I didn't have a single chance, I wouldn't be participating," he said, adding if Lagarde won he would give her his support.
The final selection to replace Strauss-Kahn, who faces trial in New York over allegations of sexual assault, is expected to be announced by June 30.
The institution's executive board, whose members represent a country or a group of countries, is aiming to select the next chief by consensus, but could resort to a vote. That would leave Carstens easily outgunned by Lagarde.
