The process for coding the current block comprises a step of selecting the predicted block from among candidate blocks, the selection being dependent on a difference DBdrx,dry between the co-located block of the current image block lying in an image of type B and the block of a reference image, the latter block being designated by the motion vector with components drx, dry which is allocated to co-located block and which is colinear with the motion vector Vp allocated to the current block and designating the candidate block. Applications relate to data compression, the transmission of digital images using the video coding standard comprising a direct prediction mode, for example the h263, MPEG4 or h261 standard.