Strauss-Kahn set to visit IMF in Washington

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is free to travel again after getting his passport back from US prosecutors who dropped a sexual assault case against him.

He has said he “can’t wait to go back” to his native France but has business to attend to before he leaves America.

The IMF has said he plans to visit its headquarters in Washington, where he also has a home, as early as next week.

The 62-year-old economist, former diplomat and one-time French presidential prospect has been in New York since a weekend trip turned into an arrest, nearly a week in jail and about three months in a hastily rented, $50,000 (£30,000)-a-month apartment where he was on house arrest and under guard. He resigned from the IMF days after his arrest, saying he wanted to focus on clearing his name. IMF spokesman David Hawley would not say why Mr Strauss-Kahn planned to visit. He has since been replaced at the head of the IMF by former French minister Christine Lagarde.