Strauss-Kahn's first interview since returning to France

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has given his first television interview since charges of attempted rape made against him by a hotel maid in New York were dropped.

The former head of the International Monetary Fund says it was a "moral failing" on his part.

In his first interview since his May 14 arrest over accusations of sexual assault by the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, Strauss-Kahn said "what happened was more than an inappropriate relation, it was an error."

He was interviewed on France's TF1 channel on Sunday evening by Claire Chazal, a friend of his wife the broadcaster Anne Sinclair.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, says his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid "did not involve violence, constraint or aggression" but still was a "moral failing" on his part, adding "I regret it infinitely."