European Union finance ministers have agreed to consult governments of non-EU countries over the next fortnight before choosing between two candidates to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, named the two candidates as the Spanish finance minister, Mr Rodrigo Rato, and the French head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Mr Jean Lemierre.

Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, Mr Gordon Brown, who is currently chairman of the IMF's International Monetary and Financial Committee, will conduct the consultations on behalf of the EU.

"We look forward to a consensus emerging in the next two weeks with a view to naming an agreed European candidate when ministers meet again in the margins of the forthcoming EBRD annual general meeting in London," Mr McCreevy said.

The managing director of the IMF, Mr Horst Koehler, stepped down earlier this year to become a candidate for the German presidency. Any of the IMF's 134 member-states can nominate a candidate to lead the organisation but the post is traditionally given to a European, with the United States holding the only effective veto.

Ministers presented the choice between Mr Lemierre and Mr Rato as that between a technocrat and a politician. Germany's Mr Hans Eichel said that Berlin was backing Mr Lemierre but promised to take account of the outcome of Mr Brown's consultations.

"If the majority around the world want someone with more technocratic skills, we will back that. If they want a more political figure, we won't oppose the rest of the world," he said.

Mr Rato's chances of succeeding Mr Koehler at the IMF may have been damaged by last month's decision to appoint a Spanish candidate to the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB). Some observers at Punchestown suggested, however, that Mr Lemierre could face opposition because the ECB president, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, is also French.

The new French finance minister, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, suggested that the candidates' qualities should be considered rather than their national origins.

"Above all we want this to be about finding the most appropriate profile possible rather than quarrel over people or nationalities. We have two profiles, one more political and one more technical, and this is being discussed," he said.