Dominique Strauss-Kahn accuses Sarkozy allies of choreographing maid scandal

"Perhaps I was politically naive, but I simply did not believe that they would go that far … I didn't think they could find anything that could stop me," Mr Strauss-Kahn told Edward Jay Epstein.

Mr Epstein was the journalist who first brought to public attention a clip of a curious celebratory dance performed by two Sofitel employees caught by the hotel's CCTV shortly after Miss Diallo called New York police leading to Mr Strauss-Kahn's arrest.

Mr Strauss-Kahn said he did not believe the "victory dance was a coincidence".

The Sofitel said: "We have co-operated fully with authorities and have no further comment at this time."

On the morning of the Sofitel incident, Mr Strauss-Kahn told Mr Epstein, he received a text message on his BlackBerry from a friend in Paris. She warned him that his communications were being intercepted and that an email he had sent to his wife, Anne Sinclair, had been discovered by a sympathiser inside the UMP party headquarters in Paris.

"I took the threat seriously," he said.

Mr Strauss-Kahn's came just weeks before he had intended to declare his intention to run for president, and he was convinced he would go on to win.

All criminal charges against Mr Strauss-Kahn were dropped last August due to doubts about Miss Diallo's testimony and he insists the encounter was consensual. But she is pressing for civil charges and a Manhattan judge is due to rule on Tuesday whether he can claim diplomatic immunity.

But he faces more legal woes in France, where he has been placed under investigation for "aggravated pimping" in relation to an alleged prostitution ring operating from Belgian brothels via hotels in Lille, northern France and Paris. Some even are said to have gone to see him in Washington when he was still IMF chief.