By Lesley Wroughton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz lashed back at critics on Monday who he said were conducting a smear campaign against him and vowed he would not resign.
In a statement to a bank panel looking into whether he broke ethical and other rules in a pay-and-promotion deal he directed for his girlfriend, Wolfowitz said treatment of the issue had become "circus like."
"The goal of this smear campaign, I believe, is to create a self- fulfilling prophecy that I am an ineffective leader and must step down for that reason alone, even if the ethics charges are unwarranted," Wolfowitz said.
"And, I will not resign in the face of a plainly bogus charge of conflict of interest," he said in the statement.
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