Former foreign minister Halbe Zijlstra may be a candidate to be the next Dutch representative to the World Bank, the AD said on Tuesday, citing diplomatic sources.

The paper says prime minister Mark Rutte is keen to nominate Zijlstra for the role but that there are objections to the appointment from both other politicians and the diplomatic service.

Zijlstra was forced to step down as minister after it emerged he had lied about being at the dacha of Russian president Vladimir Putin while working for Shell.

No decision has yet been taken about the appointment. ‘I hope it won’t come to that,’ one source told the paper.

The paper says finance minister Wopke Hoekstra is opposed to the nomination because Zijlstra has little experience of the financial world.