UPDATE 1-EBRD proposes Czech PM Fischer as vice-pres

                                
 * To start few months after Czech election
                                
 * Respected professional, politically independent
                                
 * No banking experience
                                
 * For a FACTBOX on Fischer, click on [ID:nLDE63K12B]
                                
 
                                
 (Adds Fischer accepting, quotes, background)
                                
 LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) - The European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) proposed Czech Prime
Minister Jan Fischer as vice-president on Wednesday, giving him
an exit from his short-term political engagement.
 Fischer, a lifelong statistician, has been caretaker prime
minister since a centre-right government collapsed in March last
year but has always said he would quit after elections in May.
                                
 The development bank for emerging Europe said in a statement
the appointment would be approved at a May 6 board meeting and
that Fischer would replace Brigita Schmoegnerova whose term
expires on Aug. 31 2010.
                                
 EBRD President Thomas Mirow said Fischer's experience as the
leader of a country with long-standing relationship with the
bank and with concluding the country's EU presidency last year
made him fit for the job.
                                
 "This made him very well suited for developing high level
relations with the authorities of the countries where the EBRD
invests, which is part of the remit of the Vice Presidency,
Operational Policies," the EBRD said.
                                
 Fischer, 59, would oversee the bank's activities on
environment and sustainability and also take over the EBRD's
nuclear safety unit.
                                
 During his stint at the helm of the cabinet, he became the
country's most popular politician with approval ratings of 89
percent in a poll last month, helped by his frank talk on the
need to fix the budget gap and by his image of a straightforward
professional untainted by sleaze.
                                
 "I accepted the EBRD offer in line with my announcement last
year that I see my future not in politics, but in working for a
domestic or foreign expert institution," Fischer said in a
statement.
                                
 The announcement dispels speculation in some Czech media
that Fischer may replace Zdenek Tuma as central bank governor
after Tuma's departure at the end of June. 
                                
 Current vice-governors Miroslav Singer and Mojmir Hampl
remain the front-runners, with Singer the favourite according to
Czech central bank watchers.
                                
 Fischer worked as an expert for the International Monetary
Fund between 2000-2003. He joined the Czech Statistical Office
(CSU) in the 1970s, and became chairman in 2003. He has never
worked in the banking sector.
                                
 He was a rank-and-file member of the Communist Party in the
1980s but has had no political allegiance since the 1989 end of
communist rule.
                                
 Czech general elections are due on May 28-29 to replace the
caretaker government. Fischer will stay on as prime minister
until the formation of a new cabinet, which is likely to take at
least weeks since the election.
                                
 (Reporting by Sujata Rao and Jan Lopatka; editing by Carolyn
Cohn and Toby Chopra)