DSK admits kiss with Banon, but denies rape

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has admitted to police he made a pass at a young author in 2003 but claims he did not try to rape her. According to an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the French news agency, DSK denied the claim by 32-year-old writer Tristane Banon, that he assaulted and tried to rape her during an interview in a Paris flat. 

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

A report on the news website lexpress.fr, says Strauss-Kahn admitted he tried to kiss Banon, but when she refused he did not insist.

Banon has previously said that economist grabbed her "like a rutting chimpanzee", wrestled with her on the floor and tried to take her jeans off, forcing her to kick and punch him to escape.

She had spoken of the alleged attack on television in 2007, but only pressed charges this year after Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York and accused of sexually assaulting a hotel chambermaid.

DSK has denied any wrongdoing and lodged a countersuit for defamation.

He is set to appear on prime time television on Sunday night to speak for the first time of the events surrounding the alleged incident in the New York hotel room in May.