A defiant Paul Wolfowitz told a committee investigating his handling of the Shaha Riza pay-and-promotion controversy on Monday that he had done nothing wrong and had no intention of bowing to calls to step down as World Bank president.

Mr Wolfowitz, who appeared with his two attorneys, told the panel of bank directors: “I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest.” In comments apparently aimed as much at US political opinion as the committee investigating him, Mr Wolfowitz lashed out against what he called a “smear campaign” that aimed “to create a self-fulfilling prophecy that I am an ineffective leader and must step down for that reason alone”.