EU budget chief to seek presidency in Lithuania

(VILNIUS) - European Union budget commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite Thursday announced she will stand in May's presidential election in her native Lithuania, which is in the grip of an economic crisis.

"I can -- and I want -- to use my experience, my knowledge and my abilities to pull us out of the political and economic shadows," Grybauskaite, 52, told reporters announcing she would stand as a centre-right independent candidate.

The Baltic state of 3.4 million people declared independence from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1990. The booming economy has stalled in the financial crisis and output is expected to shrink by 4.8 percent this year.

Public anger at budget cuts and political frustration boiled over into a riot outside parliament in January.

Grybauskaite, an economist, began her career as a public servant after independence. She is not a member of a political party.

She was deputy finance minister from 1999 to 2000, deputy foreign minister in 2000, and was appointed finance minister in 2001.

The government sent her to join the EU's executive European Commission when Lithuania joined the bloc in 2004.

"She's proved she's a good economist and knows how to run an administration. Now all she has to do is prove she's a good politician," Vilnius University analyst Kestutis Girnius told AFP.

It is not clear if President Valdas Adamkus, an independent, will seek reelection in the May 17 poll.

Adamkus, 83, is not barred from standing because although he has served two terms, they have not been consecutive.

The handful of other candidates includes Arunas Valinskas, a gameshow host who was elected to parliament last year.