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 The White House signed off on the reforms in 2010, but U.S.
lawmakers need to back changes in how the IMF is funded before they
can be put into place, given Washington's position as a controlling
shareholder in the global lender.
But a must-pass $1.1 trillion U.S. spending bill unveiled late on
Tuesday omits the IMF voting reform provision, dooming prospects
that it will get passed by a year-end deadline.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that passing the
reforms concerned the "reputation, electiveness and legality" of the
IMF.
"China will continue to urge the U.S. Congress to approve it," Hong
told a daily news briefing.
 Finance chiefs from around the world had given the United States
until Jan. 1 to ratify the reforms, and have threatened to move
forward without it if it fails to do so.
The changes would double the fund's resources and hand more IMF
voting power to countries such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa, also known as BRICS. It would also revamp the IMF's
board to reduce dominance of Western Europe.
Some outside observers believe the lack of reforms was the impetus
behind the decision of the BRICS nations to launch their own
currency reserve pool and development bank earlier this year,
intended as a challenge to Western dominance in global financial
institutions.
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China also launched a proposed $50 billion Asian Infrastructure
Investment Bank, seen as a direct rival to the Western-dominated
World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing
by Nick Macfie)
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