PARIS Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn says his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid was "consensual but stupid" and cost him his chance to be the next French president, according to a biography to be published on Thursday. 
 
 The book, written by Michel Taubmann who says Strauss-Kahn confided in him, covers sex scandals that have dogged the former French finance minister even after the U.S. assault case ended his career as IMF head and wrecked his chances of running in France's 2012 election. 
 
 "Nothing would have happened if I hadn't had this consensual, but stupid relationship with Nafissatou Diallo," Strauss-Kahn is quoted as saying in the book. "That day, I opened the door to all the other affairs." 
 
 Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York on May 14 onboard a plane bound for Europe minutes before take-off and charged with attempting to rape Diallo. 
 
 Prosecutors eventually dropped all criminal charges, leaving him free to return to his native France. French prosecutors then ruled that a separate sexual assault complaint filed against Strauss-Kahn by a writer involved an incident that happened too long ago for legal action. 
 
 "I could have been in a position to be president," Strauss-Kahn is quoted as saying in the book. "Now, I'm no longer in that position, that's all." 
 
 He adds that he had an "uninhibited sex life" but says that was not unusual in political and business circles and that he had done nothing illegal. 
 
 The media furor around Strauss-Kahn has not stopped with the Diallo case. His name has appeared in media reports on a judicial probe into a prostitution ring in the north of France, known as the Carlton Affair. 
 
 That case involves a prostitution ring, discovered this year, that operated in the luxury Carlton Hotel in the city of Lille. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn last month asked to speak to investigators in the case to try to end the "dangerous and malicious insinuations." 
 
 "In the press, they link my name to prostitution. It's unbearable," he is quoted as saying in the book. "I did go to sex parties, it's true, but usually those who came to these soirees were not prostitutes." 
 
 (Reporting By John Irish; Editing by Roger Atwood) ||||| Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Dominique Strauss-Kahn is facing charges of "aggravated pimping" 
 
 The trial of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on pimping charges has begun in France. 
 
 Mr Strauss-Kahn, 65, is accused of helping to procure sex workers for an alleged prostitution ring based at a hotel in Lille. 
 
 The former presidential hopeful has admitted attending sex parties there but says he did not know that some of the women were prostitutes. 
 
 The case is the latest sex-related allegation to trouble Mr Strauss-Kahn. 
 
 He stepped down as International Monetary Fund leader after being accused of attempted rape by a hotel maid in New York in 2011. 
 
 The charges were eventually dropped and Mr Strauss-Kahn reached a settlement with the maid, Nafissatou Diallo. 
 
 Two other cases against him, concerning allegations of sexual assault and gang rape, have already been dropped. 
 
 The case has been described as a litmus test for changing attitudes in France with the private lives of public figures now facing more scrutiny than in the past, the BBC's Lucy Williamson reports from Paris. 
 
 Mr Strauss-Kahn, who arrived at the courthouse in Lille dressed in a dark suit, had to push his way through a throng of journalists and photographers. 
 
 He is standing trial along with 13 others, including the owner of a brothel known as "Dodo the Pimp". 
 
 Mr Strauss-Khan is facing a charge of "aggravated pimping" and is accused of using his business contacts to hire women for sex parties in Paris, Lille and Washington. 
 
 His lawyers argue that although he has admitted attending these parties, he was completely unaware that many of the women involved were paid prostitutes. 
 
 French media outlets have dubbed the case the "Carlton Affair" after the hotel which the allegations pertain to. ||||| Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, maintained Sunday his sexual encounter with a New York hotel maid did not involve violence, constraint or aggression but still constituted a moral failing on his part. 
 
 In his first interview since his May 14 arrest over accusations of sexual assault, Strauss-Kahn told France's TF1 television channel "what happened was more than an inappropriate relation. It was an error." 
 
 He added "I regret it infinitely." 
 
 Still, he maintained the encounter with the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, was consensual and that she "lied" in accusing him of attacking her after she came into his room at New York's Sofitel hotel to clean. 
 
 Strauss-Kahn also dismissed as "imaginary" separate claims by a French writer that he tried to rape her during a 2003 interview, again insisting "no act of aggression, no violence" had taken place between the two. 
 
 The writer, Tristane Banon, has maintained she and Strauss-Kahn tussled on the floor during an interview in an empty apartment, with the politician trying to open her jeans and bra and putting his fingers in her mouth and underwear. 
 
 Because a police investigation into the claims is ongoing, Strauss-Kahn said he would not say anything more about the matter. 
 
 If Paris prosecutors decide to pursue the case, Strauss-Kahn _ once among the luminaries of France's Socialist party who was widely considered a top contender in next year's presidential race _ could face a possible trial. 
 
 New York prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against him in the Diallo case last month, though Strauss-Kahn is still facing a lawsuit brought by the maid, an immigrant from the African nation of Guinea. 
 
 Asked whether he had any intention of returning to politics, Strauss-Kahn said he would "take time to reflect" and rest first. 
 
 "But all my life was consecrated to being useful to the public good," he said, adding "we will see." 
 
 The interview came off as somewhat scripted, with Strauss-Kahn _ in a dark suit and navy tie _ looking unruffled and responding calmly to the questions. 
 
 The AP does not name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or come forward publicly, as Diallo and Banon have done. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
– Dominique Strauss-Kahn said when he stepped naked from the shower to see the Manhattan hotel maid who later accused him of rape, their eyes met and he read an invitation to "precipitous but consensual" sex, says a new biography out today. But he still considers the encounter "stupid" because it was the beginning of the end of his political ambitions, he tells author Michel Taubmann. "That day, I opened the door to all the other affairs. I could have been in a position to be president," Strauss-Kahn is quoted as saying in excerpts from Affaires DSK in Paris Match. "Now, I'm no longer in that position." He admits that he has enjoyed an "uninhibited sex life," but adds that's not unusual in politics and business, and that he has done nothing illegal, reports Reuters. New York prosecutors eventually dropped all charges against Strauss-Kahn, and some believe he was framed as part of a conspiracy to ruin his reputation. In a separate case, French authorities decided that too much time had elapsed to levy charges for an alleged sex assault on a French writer. Now DSK is apparently part of an investigation eyeing him as a possible client of a prostitution ring. "In the press, they link my name to prostitution. It's unbearable," he says in the book. "I did go to sex parties, it's true, but usually those who came to these soirées were not prostitutes."