Strauss-Kahn: Sex Scandal Was 'Moral Failing'

The former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss Kahn, has said his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid was a "moral failing" on his part.

In his first interview since his arrest over rape allegations in May, he told France's TF1 television channel what happened between him and Nafissatou Diallo, "was not only an inappropriate relationship, but more than that, it was an error".

But he added that it did not involve violence, constraint or aggression.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist politician who was expected to run in next year's presidential race until the case broke, said "it was a failing, a failing vis-a-vis my wife, my children and my friends but also a failing vis-a-vis the French people, who had vested their hopes for change in me".

Much of the interview, which was conducted by one of his wife's friends, appeared staged with Mr Strauss-Kahn looking relaxed and seemingly prepared for the questions.

At the start of the 20-minute exchange he was repentant: "I think it was a moral failing and I am not proud of it. I regret it infinitely. I have regretted it everyday for the past four months and I think I'm not done regretting it."

But his initial contrition was peppered with anger at his accuser, a Guinean immigrant who maintained he attacked her after she came into his room at New York's Sofitel hotel to clean.

He said the New York prosecutor concluded: "Nafissatou Diallo lied about everything not only about her past, that's of no importance, but also about what happened.

"The (prosecutor's) report says, it's written there, that 'she presented so many different versions of what happened that I can't believe a word.'"

Mr Strauss-Kahn suggested that financial motives might have been behind Diallo's accusations.

He also dismissed separate claims by French writer Tristane Banon that he tried to rape her during a 2003 interview.

If Paris prosecutors decide to pursue the case, Mr Strauss-Kahn could face a possible trial.

New York prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against him in the Diallo case last month, though Mr Strauss-Kahn is still facing a civil lawsuit brought by the maid.

Asked whether he had any intention of returning to politics, he said he would "take time to reflect" and rest first.

"But all my life was consecrated to being useful to the public good," he said, adding "we will see."