Finance ministers from the European Union will discuss possible candidates to succeed Rodrigo Rato to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as they are ready to meet on Tuesday.

"Ministers will also have an exchange of views, ahead of the October general assembly of the International Monetary Fund, on the replacement of the IMF managing director," the European Commission said in a press release one day before the meeting.

The IMF current managing director Rato announced last month he would step down in October for personal reasons, ending his five- year term two years earlier.

A commission spokeswoman said later that the EU would install a new leader for the IMF, which is traditionally led by a European, while its sister organization the World Bank has an American head.

However, EU finance ministers are unlikely to make a decision at the moment, diplomats said.

Rato's surprise resignation gave the IMF four months to search for a new leader. Till now, several big names have popped up as possible candidates.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed former French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn, while Italian Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa and the governor of the Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi, also appeared in media speculative list.

In addition, the finance ministers will hold discussions on the reform of the IMF's voting quotas towards a new formula that better represents the relative weight of EU members, the commission said.

At the one-day meeting, Malta and Cyprus are set to go through the last procedure to join the eurozone as from Jan. 1, 2008.

EU finance ministers will decide on the conversion rates of the Maltese lira and the Cypriot pound to the euro, allowing the Malta and Cyprus six months to prepare for the changeover.

The EU's executive arm proposed in May that the two Mediterranean countries have achieved a high degree of sustainable economic convergence with the eurozone members and met the necessary conditions to adopt the euro, which lifted the biggest hurdle on the two countries' eurozone path.

The proposal was endorsed by EU finance ministers and later leaders of EU member states in June.

The expected adoption of the single currency by Malta and Cyprus will expand the euro zone to 15 countries. Among the ten states that joined the EU in 2004, only Slovenia has adopted the euro as its currency.