Dominique Strauss-Kahn, himself a former French finance minister, resigned as IMF managing director on Thursday after being arrested at the weekend on charges of attempted rape of a chambermaid in a luxury New York hotel.
Lagarde has been tipped as the leading candidate to replace him from Europe, which is fighting hard to keep the leadership of the Fund in the face of pressure from fast-growing emerging economies for a decision based more strictly on merit.
"I am convinced that she is a very good candidate," Thierry Mariani, minister for transport, told France Info radio. "I have done some trips with her in Asia and I can testify to her popularity with the ministers of major emerging economies.
Meanwhile, the hotel maid whom the IMF chief has been accused of assaulting was reported to have testified against him Wednesday.
A lawyer for the 32-year-old woman said she would tell a grand jury in New York that there was "nothing consensual" about her encounter in Strauss-Kahn's hotel room last week.
The woman, a widowed mother originally from Guinea, alleges that Strauss-Kahn groped and assaulted her in his luxurious hotel suite, and that he tried to rape her.
The New York grand jury is listening to testimony from her and others in secret, to determine if there is enough evidence to indict Strauss-Kahn. The grand jury decision is expected to be announced at a hearing Friday.
Strauss-Kahn denies the charges, as well as allegations that he tried to flee the country after the incident. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers say the IMF chief went out to lunch after leaving the hotel. They insist that the Paris flight on which he was arrested had been booked long before.
Strauss-Kahn has weathered past scandals. In 2008 he apologized for what he termed an "error in judgment" for an affair with one of his subordinates. Also, a lawyer for French writer Tristane Banon says she may make a legal complaint against Strauss-Kahn, claiming that he sexually assaulted her in 2002.
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