Mumbai: Robert Zoellick, a former US trade representative, will replace Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank. President George W Bush will announce the decision later in the day, a US official said.

Zoellick will take charge after Paul Wolfowitz steps down on June 30.

Bush expects the bank`s board to accept his selection, the official said. The appointment of Zoellick must be approved by the World Bank''s 24-member board. But World Bank directors have never blocked a nomination in the past.

Bush wanted an American to succeed Wolfowitz, despite calls from World Bank member countries and some US lawmakers to throw the process open to a global pool of candidates.

Wolfowitz was forced to quit as World Bank president after findings by a special bank panel that he broke bank rules when he arranged for a hefty compensation package for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, a bank employee, in 2005.

The White House had earlier said that the nomination process for the next president of the World Bank was almost through but press secretary John Snow did not give any names.

Meanwhile, US treasury secretary Henry Paulson received "positive reactions" from other western countries to the choice of Zoellick, the official said.

Zoellick who had been tipped as a candidate last year to become treasury secretary left his job as deputy secretary of state to join Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs & Co. But that job went to the then Goldman Sachs chief executive Paulson instead.

As Bush`s first trade representative, Zoellick helped launch the Doha round of world trade talks and completed negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organisation. He continued a major focus on China as secretary of state Condoleezza Rice`s top deputy.

Traditionally, an American used to head the World Bank an American while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is headed by someone from Europe.