BRUSSELS, Belgium – European Union governments gave their endorsement to World Bank president nominee Paul Wolfowitz yesterday after he affirmed his commitment to multilateralism and said he would make the fight against poverty his top goal as head of the Washington-based global lending institution.

Belgian Development Aid minister Armand De Decker told reporters “there are no objections of E.U. countries” to Mr. Wolfowitz, who met for two hours with development and finance ministers at E.U. headquarters.

Many of those ministers are governors of the World Bank.

Mr. Wolfowitz said after the talks that he was “eager to take on this challenge” of heading the bank, adding he would make fighting poverty his top priority.

“Helping people lift themselves out of poverty is truly a noble mission,” said Mr. Wolfowitz, who is expected to be voted in as the next World Bank president today. Mr. Wolfowitz is still the U.S. deputy defense secretary.

German Development Aid Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said she was encouraged by what she heard, adding that many ministers around the table pushed Mr. Wolfowitz on his neoconservativism and reputation as a hawk in the Bush administration.

“This is the past he has,” Mr. Wieczorek-Zeul said. “But it’s also clear that this is for him a new beginning, and we judge him according on what he said today.”

Mr. Wolfowitz said he understood why many Europeans were cool on his nomination, acknowledging his reputation and role as a key architect of the Iraq war, which made Europeans uneasy about how he would lead the world’s premier lending and credit institution for poor and developing nations.

“I understand that I am, to put it mildly, a controversial figure,” Mr. Wolfowitz said. “But I hope that as people get to know me better, they will understand that I really do believe deeply in the mission of the [World] Bank.”

Development Cooperation Minister Agnes van Ardenne said the E.U. also pushed him to ensure one of his deputies at the bank would be European and ensure his role would be independent of the American government.

“We are aware of the fact that he is still very close to the Bush administration … but on the other hand, he is very much committed to the World Bank as a multilateral institute and I think that removes a lot of concern from our heads and hearts as development ministers,” Ms. van Ardenne said.

Yesterday, France pushed for more European influence in the delivery of global aid through the World Bank by nominating Jean-Pierre Jouyet, 51, chairman of the Paris Club – an international debt-relief agency – as a deputy president, a new post.

However French officials at yesterday’s talks did not raise his specific candidacy, diplomats said.

Placing a Frenchman in the no.2 spot will increase the weight of the E.U. at the top of the bank and allay fears in Europe that Mr. Wolfowitz will not turn his new job into a launch platform for President Bush’s global agenda.

Mr. Wolfowitz did not comment on the French move, but said he recognized the bank’s management must “reflect the fact that it is a multilateral institution” and that Europe was the bank’s largest single donor. However, the bank directors must also reflect the “full diversity of donors and recipients,” Mr. Wolfowitz said.

Of the 24 directors, five – one each from America, Japan, Germany, France, and Britain – are directly appointed by their governments.

The other 19 are elected by World Bank nations and represent groups of countries or regions. Of the 24 directors, 11 are Europeans.

At the meeting at the E.U. head office, officials said, Mr. Wolfowitz sought to defuse his reputation as a unilateralist and pushed his pro-development views.

He said afterward he had firsthand experience with the importance of the World Bank’s role when he was American ambassador to Indonesia and, again, when he toured Asian nations devastated by the December 26 tsunami.

Officials said Mr. Wolfowitz told ministers he would make his first trip as World Bank chief to Africa.