2D induced gravity from canonically gauged WZNW system

Starting from the Kac--Moody structure of the WZNW model for SL(2,R) and using the general canonical formalism, we formulate a gauge theory invariant under local SL(2,R) x SL(2,R) and diffeomorphisms. This theory represents a gauge extension of the WZNW system, defined by a difference of two simple WZNW actions. By performing a partial gauge fixing and integrating out some dynamical variables, we prove that the resulting effective theory coincides with the induced gravity in 2D. The geometric properties of the induced gravity are obtained out of the gauge properties of the WZNW system with the help of the Dirac bracket formalism.