Emerging economies should have a say on who should take the helm of the International Monetary Fund, but overhauling the global agency is more important than the succession issue, an adviser to the People's Bank of China said on Tuesday.

Xia Bin, who sits on the central bank's monetary policy committee, also told Reuters that reform of the IMF could not make significant progress unless the US is willing to give up its dominant voting share in favour of developing countries.

"It's not a issue of who will be the candidate for the IMF managing director. The problem is that the voting share of the US is too big," he said.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has emerged as a front-runner to succeed the fund's jailed managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but developing economies, with growing global clout, are keeping pressure on Europe and the United States to avoid a backroom deal over the appointment.

"The voice of emerging-market economies should be heard, but emerging markets must realise that reform of the global monetary systems is a long process," Xia said.

The voting shares reflect the relative size of member countries' economies.

In November, the IMF agreed to boost the voting power of big emerging economies, enabling China to leapfrog Germany, France and Britain in the fund's power rankings, with its quota share rising to 6.19 percent from 3.65 percent.

Under the latest adjustments, the US remains the IMF's most powerful member with 17.67 percent of the overall quota, effectively giving it veto power at the Fund.

Xia said he hopes a candidate from China could compete for the IMF job but added that it's unrealistic to expect China to play a big role in IMF policy decisions any time soon.

Turning to the domestic issues, Xia said the government is less concerned about slower economic growth and is likely to maintain its tighter policy to fight inflation. – Reuters