At a news conference on July 7, Ms. Lagarde also said sovereign-debt troubles and surges in capital flows to emerging markets need the IMF's urgent attention as the world struggles with an uneven economic recovery.

She dodged most questions about the financial crisis in Greece and the euro zone, likely the most pressing policy issue facing her in the coming weeks.

Ms. Lagarde, 55, stepped into her post at a time when the IMF is recovering from Mr. Strauss-Kahn's sudden arrest and resignation in mid-May.

The contest to succeed him exposed rifts among many of the IMF's 187 member nations, amid complaints that the fund's governance structure and policies remain dominated by the US and Europe at the expense of rapidly growing developing economies.

Ms. Lagarde, who until last week was France's finance minister, is the 11th consecutive European to head the IMF since it was created in 1944.

She stressed that she wants to diversify the fund not just in terms of race and gender but also by culture and academic background "so that people are not clones of each other."

Ms. Lagarde pledged that the fund under her leadership wouldn't give special treatment to any of its members and that she "will not be biased" as she works through Europe's debt crisis in her new role.