Washington, May 17:

Embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz sought a graceful exit from a scandal over his girlfri-end’s pay package as bank chiefs prepared for more talks on his fate today.

Wolfowitz, a longtime ally of US president George W Bush, was reported to be willing to resign as long as the bank took some of the blame for its muddled advice on the controversial pay raise he negotiated for his female companion.

European countries ha-ve pushed hard for the former deputy defence secretary’s departure from the 185-country bank and ev-en White House support has weaned in recent days as controversy deepened.

At issue is Wolfowitz’s role in arranging a generous promotion and pay package for his companion and fellow bank employee, Shaha Riza, after he took the helm in 2005.

A scathing report released by an internal investigatory panel this week found that Wolfowitz violated bank rules in arranging the deal for Riza, but also said the bank gave him cloudy advice on the matter. A source close to the bank said yesterday th-at a deal being considered would have the bank reco-gnise that it could have given him better guidance on avoiding a conflict-of-interest situation.

Wolfowitz’s high-profile Washington lawyer, Robert Bennett, and World Bank officials were in teleconference negotiations that have reached a ‘critical’ stage. The Bush administration had been resolutely backing Wolfowitz but now the support has began to crumble this week.