Morocco voiced support for former French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Khan's bid to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF), citing his skills, its Finance Ministry said.

"Having considered his competences and skills to contribute to the promotion of international financial stability and improve the growth potential of developing nations, Morocco's kingdom brings its support to Strauss-Khan for the IMF position," it said in a statement.

The statement was seen on Monday on the ministry's Web site without a precise date. Ministry's officials were not immediately available to say when the statement was posted.

Until last week, Strauss-Kahn was the sole contender for the IMF's top job. Spaniard Rodrigo Rato has resigned as IMF MD, effective in October.

Strauss-Kahn has the backing of European Union states, including the Czech Republic.

The US and European countries have in the past used their combined votes to ensure a European always heads the IMF and an American heads its sister organisation, the World Bank.

Strauss-Kahn also appeared to have won support from other countries in lobbying trips, when he has stressed the need to give developing countries a greater say in the way the IMF chief is elected.

He said on August 8 he had secured support from Saudi Arabia, Brazil and South Africa, and last week added he had China's backing.

However, a Brazilian Finance Ministry spokesman said on Friday the country had yet to decide who it would back.

But Russia's representative on the IMF board, Aleksei Mozhin, was quoted by the Financial Times over the weekend as saying it was not clear whether Strauss-Kahn had the necessary technical skills to do the job.

He also said Moscow had secured the backing of unnamed developing countries for its own candidate, former Czech Prime Minister and central banker Josef Tosovsky.

On Monday, French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde defended Strauss-Khan's bid saying that Moscow's official comments questioning the Frenchman's skills were misplaced.