'The flesh is weak' – DSK ally says hotel maid encouraged tryst

Former head of IMF breaks his silence on the hotel encounter that destroyed his career

Michael Taubmann, a friend of Strauss-Kahn, sets out the politician’s side of the story (Reuters)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has broken his long public silence on the six minutes that shook the world in Suite 2806 of the Manhattan Sofitel on 14 May.

The former IMF chief claims that the chambermaid, Nafissatou Diallo, initiated their sexual act by looking suggestively at his private parts when he emerged from the shower. The former French presidential front-runner admits that he bears a "heavy responsibility" for his downfall but insists that the encounter was "consensual but stupid".

Mr Strauss-Kahn's version of events is described in a book published yesterday by Michel Taubmann, a French writer who is friendly with the disgraced Socialist politician. The book repeats several of the allegations of a possible conspiracy to destroy Mr Strauss-Kahn, which were made by an American investigative journalist last weekend.

The French politician discussed his six or seven-minute sexual encounter with Ms Diallo in four interviews with Mr Taubmann in New York in August. His account was described by the Guinean chambermaid's lawyers yesterday as a "complete fantasy".

Although charges of attempted rape against Mr Strauss-Kahn have been dropped by New York authorities, Ms Diallo is pursuing a civil action. Mr Taubman's book, and the investigative article that appeared in The New York Review of Books, have been widely dismissed in the French media as part of the legal manoeuvres surrounding the civil case.

Mr Taubmann gives Mr Strauss-Kahn's first published account of the disputed events in a book called Affaire DSK: la contre-enquête . "Emerging from the shower as naked as Adam, the director general of the IMF was confronted with Nafissatou Diallon, whom he had never seen before," Mr Taubmann writes. "He watched her walk down the corridor (of the suite). Nafissatou Diallo turned around. She looked him straight in the eyes. Then she unashamedly looked at his private parts.

"The flesh is weak. Dominique Strauss-Kahn saw this as a proposition. Rarely in his life has he ever refused the possibility of a moment of pleasure. He did not resist the temptation of oral sex."

DSK was arrested later that day after Ms Diallo claimed that he forced her to perform a sexual act. Inconsistencies in her story persuaded the Manhattan district attorney to drop charges of attempted rape in August.

At the time of the incident, Mr Strauss-Kahn was the undeclared front-runner for the French presidential elections. An article in The New York Review of Books last weekend by Edward Jay Epstein pointed to a possible plot to destroy DSK by political forces close to Mr Sarkozy. Several of the allegations have since been contradicted or challenged.

In his new book, Mr Taubmann pursues, like Mr Epstein, the intriguing question of what happened to a BlackBerry which was "lost" by Mr Strauss-Kahn on 14 May. Both men say that Mr Strauss-Kahn had been warned that emails sent from the phone were being read by senior figures in Mr Sarkozy's party.

Both say that the phone was last used by Mr Strauss-Kahn at 12.13 pm on 14 May, when he called his daughter, Camille, within a few seconds of finishing his sexual encounter with Mr Diallo. Mr Taubmann's book suggests – without offering any evidence – that the chambermaid may have stolen the phone after DSK made the call.