Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former French finance minister the European Union is backing to become head of the International Monetary Fund, lacks the technical qualifications for the job, according to Russia's IMF executive director.

Aleksei Mozhin, whose government this week unexpectedly nominated a rival candidate, Josef Tosovsky, former prime minister of the Czech Republic, said Mr Strauss-Kahn was a "career politician" with insufficient qualifications to lead the IMF.

"There is nothing in Mr Strauss-Kahn's curriculum vitae which could make it clear he has the necessary technical skills to do the job," he said, adding that Russia's nominee had a real chance of winning the board of director's approval when it votes next month.

Under a long-running arrangement between the US and the EU, the head of the World Bank is usually an American while the IMF is headed by a European.

"The whole process of selecting the IMF managing director is deeply flawed," Mr Mozhin said in an interview with the Financial Times. "We believe the IMF is facing a severe crisis of legitimacy and that if you want to make the IMF relevant to the needs of developing countries we must select the best candidate."

Mr Strauss-Kahn told the FT last month that bridging the gap between rich and poor countries would be as high a priority for him as helping to solve the world's financial imbalances.

In the past month Mr Strauss-Kahn has visited Moscow, New Delhi, Beijing and Brasilia in what he described as a "campaign" for the nomination. "It is entirely legitimate for any country that is a member of the IMF to promote one of their nationals as a candidate," he said.

Mr Mozhin said Russia had privately secured the support of IMF board members from developing countries for Mr Tosovsky, although he would not say which ones.

Russia's IMF director said he believed that the US administration, which with the EU accounts for 49.85 per cent of the board's vote, was keeping an open mind.

"If developing countries do not have the feeling that they are playing a role in the selection process they will simply turn their backs on the IMF," he said.

"This is not to create the appearance it is a competitive process. We strongly believe that Mr Tosovsky is the best candidate with the most relevant experience."

Mr Strauss-Kahn declined to comment.