Wolfowitz says won't resign

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz lashed back at critics on Monday who he said were conducting a "smear campaign" against him and vowed he would not resign over what he called unfair charges.

In a statement to an investigating bank panel looking into whether he broke ethical and other rules in a pay-and-promotion deal he directed for his girlfriend, Wolfowitz said the treatment of the issue has become "circus like."

"The goal of this smear campaign, I believe, is to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that I am an ineffective leader and must step down for that reason alone, even if the ethics charges are unwarranted," Wolfowitz said.

"And, I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest," he said in a statement obtained by Reuters.

The former deputy U.S. defense secretary, whose legacy as an architect of the Iraq war has haunted his bank tenure since 2005, did not totally rule out the possibility he may eventually step down, but made clear he would not be forced.

"Only when the cloud of these unfair and untrue charges is removed, will it truly be possible to determine objectively whether I can be an effective leader of the World Bank," Wolfowitz said.

Sources said the meeting with the panel, led by Dutch government representative Herman Wijffels, lasted about two hours, and focused mainly on possible conflict of interest issues over the promotion for Shaha Riza, an Oxford-educated Middle East specialist.

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