DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN will come face to face before a Paris judge with the young French woman accusing him of attempted rape, prosecutors have said.

The pair have been ordered to appear to tell their rival versions of events, after writer Tristane Banon said the former IMF head had sexually assaulted her during an interview in 2003. She has alleged that Strauss-Kahn tried to open her jeans and bra, and put his fingers in her mouth and underwear.

Strauss-Kahn has called her story imaginary and has sued her for slander.

Earlier this week, Banon said on French television that she would welcome a confrontation, AFP reports. She told an interviewer: “The police unit asked me whether I was prepared to accept a confrontation. Obviously, I said: ‘Yes’. I want him in front of me so he can look into my eyes and say to my face that I imagined it.”

Strauss-Kahn was considered a top contender for France’s upcoming presidential elections before his May arrest in New York on charges he tried to rape a hotel maid. Prosecutors dropped those charges.

The prosecutor announced the meeting Friday but gave no date for it. Such meetings are sometimes ordered as part of an investigation into charges.

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