Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French Socialist former finance minister, was on Friday appointed managing director of the International Monetary Fund having promised to redouble efforts to revive the institution’s fading relevance.

But the decision, which was a foregone conclusion in spite of Russia’s sponsorship of a rival European candidate last month, underlined the continuing controversy over America and Europe’s carve-up of the top jobs at the IMF and the World Bank.