WASHINGTON - Former officials at the International Monetary Fund are full of praise for Canada's central bank governor, but fear Mark Carney faces long odds if he wants to replace the disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as global jostling for the job begins.

"He's a very capable guy and regarded as such particularly because Canada came through the financial crisis so well," said Morris Goldstein, an economist who spent 24 years at the IMF, including as the deputy director of its research department.

"But he faces a number of obstacles."

Firstly, some of the world's emerging economies are actively lobbying for one of their own to take over, "and that's where the centre of gravity is moving in terms of economic power," Goldstein said.

The IMF also wants someone at the helm who will be skilled at bringing the European debt crisis under control, he added.

"There's no doubt he'd probably be very good at that, but it's not as if Canada has come through its own big debt crisis, so there's no hook on that particular connection."

Strauss-Kahn has resigned and was formally indicted Thursday on charges that he sexually abused a hotel maid.

The 32-year-old woman, who works at a posh Manhattan hotel, alleges the former IMF head attacked her over the weekend when she entered his suite to clean it.

Strauss-Kahn has been granted $1 million bail but is not expected to be released from Riker's Island prison in New York before Friday.

He insists he's innocent of the charges.

American John Lipsky, the IMF's second in command, is filling in for Strauss-Kahn until a permanent replacement is named.

And that represents yet another hurdle for Carney, said Goldstein, now a senior fellow at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. U.S. officials might also oppose Carney taking the top job for fear of what they'd lose as a result.

Traditionally, a European heads the IMF while an American is at the helm of the World Bank in an arrangement that has long vexed officials from emerging economies.

"With a Canadian heading up the IMF, Americans would have to give up the presidency of the World Bank the next time around," Goldstein said. "They'd also probably not be able to get an American replacement for Mr. Lipsky, so they'd have to lose on two fronts, and that likely won't sit well with them."

Simon Johnston, a former IMF chief economist who's now a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said Carney could stand a chance if the decision isn't made quickly and the Europeans are unable to maintain their stranglehold on the job.

"I don't think they're going to pick him as a candidate today, but we could have a process in which the Europeans may not get what they want, when they want it," Johnson said in an interview.

"My main concern is that the Europeans don't put the fix on it.... and if there's a stalemate between Europe and an emerging economy, we could well be looking for someone who is 'neither, nor,' someone who is well-respected by everyone, and that could be Mr. Carney."

Timothy Geithner, the U.S. treasury secretary, called Thursday for an "open process that leads to a prompt succession" in the selection of Strauss-Kahn's replacement. Johnson and others interpreted that brief statement as a nod to the status quo, meaning a European could be a shoo-in.

France's finance minister, Christine Lagarde, is considered one of the top contenders for the job. European officials insist Europe must remain at the head of the IMF, as it has since its creation in 1945, in part because the organization's integral role in constructing bailout packages for indebted Euro zone nations.

On the emerging economy front, Turkey's Kemal Dervis is considered the front-runner. As Turkey's economy minister in 2001-2002, he helped pull the nation out of a financial crisis with a tough package of reforms.

In recent days, Brazil has pushed for "new criteria" in deciding who gets the job, while a Chinese official called for "fairness, transparency and merit" in the choice.

Carney, too, said earlier this week the choice should be based on merit, not geography. The Bank of Canada governor was in Washington on Thursday at a meeting of the Bretton Woods Committee discussing how to navigate global financial risks.

He didn't comment on Strauss-Kahn's resignation or successor.

Under IMF rules, the organization's 24-member executive board meets and determines how to carry out the selection process. The candidate who gets the majority of the board's votes is the winner.