World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz broke ethics rules in engineering a hefty pay raise for his girlfriend, a panel report released said Monday.

The panel recommended that the World Bank's 24-member board decide "whether Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible in achieving its mandate."

The report also concluded that Wolfowitz "engaged in a de facto conflict of interest."

The panel will meet with Wolfowitz at 5:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) Tuesday to decide the leader's future, the bank said in a statement Monday.

Wolfowitz has been under fire for his involvement in a pay-and-promotion package for his girlfriend Shaha Riza, a former bank employee. The bank president has admitted granting Riza the package on advice from an ethics board at the bank.

Wolfowitz, former U.S. deputy defense secretary, was completing a written response to the accusations against him, and a no-confidence vote could come soon after, the bank officials said.

Though prominent officials from Europe to Latin America have publicly called on Wolfowitz to resign, a decisive vote would break sharply with the bank's consensus-minded culture, while presenting difficult questions over the procedure of appointing its president.

Never in the six decades of the World Bank's existence has the board removed the institution's leader, who, by tradition, is selected by the president of the United States, the bank's largest shareholder.

Source: Xinhua