"If Christine Lagarde decided to be a candidate, Europe would have the best chance of occupying this position again," Schaeuble told the Bild am Sonntag in an interview to be published Sunday, the weekly said in a communique.
He said Lagarde, widely touted as the European favourite to replace her compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn, now fighting sexual assault charges, was "perfectly appropriate" for the job.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011