Donald Evans, a former US commerce secretary with close personal ties to the Bush White House, was expected yesterday to decline an offer by Vladimir Putin to become chairman of Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company.

The invitation, made personally by the Russian president at a private meeting in Moscow this month, has been widely viewed as part of a broad campaign by the Kremlin to enlist European and US officials to top jobs in Russian business, in order to improve the reputation of the country's largest companies among international investors.