Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, has put her name forward as a candidate for the head of the International Monetary Fund, following the arrest for attempted rape and subsequent resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, currently under house arrest  in New York.

Even before she announced her candidacy, Lagarde was the bookmakers's favourite to take the job, having the backing of the US and the European Union, though there are many countries out there that are not happy with the monopoly that Europeans have had regarding this position, since the creation of the IMF in 1943.

As yet Lagarde isn't a done deal but there doesn't seem to be a rival in the same league at this moment.