Washington, April 13 (DPA) World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz's position in a scandal over the promotion of his girlfriend weakened after the bank's board faulted him for pushing through her pay package and pledged quick action.

The 24-member board's warning came after it reviewed whether Wolfowitz, 63, broke bank rules in the case of Shaha Riza, who allegedly received an unusually big raise when she was transferred to the US state department in 2005 to avoid a conflict of interest.

The flap threatened to overshadow a meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers in Washington and semi-annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the US capital at the weekend.

Wolfowitz said he was sorry for personally intervening in the matter, but an association representing the development lender's 10,000 staffers demanded he quit.

Wolfowitz says he raised the potential conflict of interest in "extensive discussions" with the bank's ethics committee after he became president in June 2005.

But the board said late Thursday that its investigation found no evidence "that the terms and conditions of the agreement (with Riza) had been commented on, reviewed or approved by the ethics committee, its chairman or the board."

"The executive directors will move expeditiously to reach a conclusion on possible actions to take," board members said in a statement. "In their consideration of the matter, the executive directors will focus on all relevant governance implications for the bank."

Wolfowitz has voiced regret that he got personally involved in the matter, but also said the World Bank found itself in "uncharted waters" when it had to resolve the conflict of interest posed by his relationship with Riza, a communications adviser at the bank.

The staff association charges that Riza got a raise twice as large as bank rules allow and that her promotion was not properly reviewed.

The uproar is the latest discord between bank staff and Wolfowitz, a former US deputy defence secretary who helped plan the invasion of Iraq. He has also been criticised for bringing in top aides with ties to the Bush administration or the US Republican Party.