New attempted rape charge for Strauss-Kahn

PARIS -- A young French author formally accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape Tuesday and broke her long public silence with a dramatic account of fending off an attacker who ripped at her clothes as they fought on his apartment floor.

Tristane Banon's criminal complaint follows a Guinean maid's accusation that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan hotel room.

New York prosecutors' doubts about the maid's credibility have revived hopes in Strauss-Kahn's Socialist Party that he could make a triumphant return to France and retake his position as the strongest challenger to conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2012 election.

While many saw Strauss-Kahn, 62, as a martyr of rough American justice, the French public may recoil at a drawn-out case in French courts brought by a young woman whose mother is a Socialist Party official. Polls have found French voters evenly divided over whether they want Strauss-Kahn to return, with women more likely to object to his reviving a political career.

Many of Strauss-Kahn's allies took to the airwaves Tuesday in attempts to undermine Banon and question the timing of her complaint about an incident that she says took place in 2003, when she was attempting to interview Strauss-Kahn for a book project. Banon first recounted the incident on a 2007 television show, in which Strauss-Kahn's name was edited out.

On Monday, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers labeled Banon's account "imaginary" and said they would file a criminal complaint of slander against her.

Banon told L'Express that she was tired of hearing "lies and rumors" told about the incident.

In Manhattan, law enforcement sources said Tuesday that investigators for District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. could finish their review of the Strauss-Kahn case by Friday but it was uncertain if a decision will be made then to throw out the sex assault indictment.

Credibility problems with the maid have made it clear to prosecutors that they wouldn't be able to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, said one of the officials, all of whom asked not to be identified.

The maid's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, filed a defamation lawsuit Tuesday against the New York Post and five of its reporters for stories suggesting that she was a prostitute. A spokeswoman for the newspaper said that it stood by the stories.

With Anthony DeStefano