Lagarde's first news conference as IMF chief

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Below are highlights of International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde's first news conference since being tapped to run the IMF.

LAGARDE ON PRESSING ISSUES

"You have the immediate pressing issues that have to do with sovereign debt. It's broader than just the euro zone, there is a tendency to focus on the euro zone because it is a mixture of various components that make it more critical and more sensitive and more difficult to address -- euro sovereignty, yet lack of political sovereignty in one single capital. It's a very broad-based issue that needs to be looked at as a matter of urgency.

"The second one is the issue of capital flows and the fact that as a result of sovereign debt issues and concerns and doubt and suspicion by investors, there is a massive flow of investment to areas of the world that are not prepared for it and are fearing the effects on their economy. So these two are of immediate concern and are pressing issues."

LAGARDE ON WORLD CHANGES

"The world is going to continue to change. We have these tectonic plates that are moving at the moment. And that needs to be reflected in the composition of governance and employment at the Fund."

LAGARDE ON NEED FOR DIVERSITY AT IMF

"We must complete the 2010 reforms, and governance and quotas must be readjusted to reflect the new architecture of the world. But that should also reflect in our employment policies, in our training policies, in the way in which we build teams, in the way in which we organize recruitment so that people are not clones of each other."

LAGARDE ON IMF PRIORITIES

"We are facing a turnaround that is very uneven. On the one hand the issues of sovereign debt, and that concerns all advanced economies ranging from Japan to the United States but clearly with a focus on the eurozone and in particular in the country of Greece. On the other hand, when we look at the emerging markets, we have, in some corners, the risk of overheating and we have the risk of inflation as well."