A special World Bank panel has found that Paul Wolfowitz breached ethics rules when he used his position as president to secure a generous compensation package for his girlfriend, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The determination after a month-long inquiry increased the chances that the bank's board might reprimand Wolfowitz or even call for his ousting, according to the Journal.

The Journal said the determination, to be put before the bank's full board as early as today, is part of a larger, confidential report on the pay-and-promotion package that Wolfowitz helped arrange for Shaha Riza, a longtime bank employee, shortly after he assumed the title of president in June 2005.

US officials were quoted as saying that they believe the report could also cast some blame on the board's ethics committee and other bank managers over how they handled the Riza matter.

How the report balances that blame, they said, could go a long way toward determining Wolfowitz's fate.

The report came as a senior adviser to Wolfowitz, Kevin Kellems, announced he will step down, in a move that underscored Wolfowitz's increasingly tenuous grip on the top job of the global poverty-fighting institution, the Journal said.

Kellems suggested that the controversy, which has grown into a broader debate about Wolfowitz's leadership, has become a major distraction and compromised his ability to do his job.

(Xinhua News Agency May 9, 2007)