NY Fed chief leads race to be Treasury Secretary

At a chief executives' conference in New York, a poll gave Geithner 37% support while Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration, picked up 18% of the vote. Former Fed chairman Paul Volcker was the selection of less than 10%.

However, second place was taken by "none of the above", with 35% expressing no preference from the list at the conference, sponsored by the Wall Street Journal.

Geithner has also pulled ahead of the field on Irish betting site intrade.com.

Whoever the choice is, the chief executives want it to be made public soon.

They called for a further stimulus package of at least $300 billion (£200.7 billion) and urged President-elect Barack Obama to name his economic team quickly.

Obama has indicated that he favours a broad economic stimulus Bill, which he says Congress should pass promptly.

However, it is being opposed by many Republicans, and is unlikely to be cleared by the current legislature, which is only meeting this week.

Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, told the conference that key components of a stimulus package would include tax cuts and what he called investments in "green" infrastructure.

"The economy needs it, the American people need it," Emanuel said.