Brown denies ambition to be leader of IMF

Mr Brown, speaking during a visit to Johannesburg yesterday, denied that his involvement in a new drive for education in the developing world was part of a “pitch for a job”.

Mr Brown is launching a new High Level Panel on Education with an appeal to the rich world to fund schooling for millions of children in the poorest countries.

He thanked Strauss-Kahn for the work he did, saying he played “a very singular, important part” in the IMF’s response to the global financial crisis.

Strauss-Kahn is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper in his hotel suite. He resigned on Wednesday, saying he needed to focus on clearing his name.

Yesterday in the New York Supreme Court, Justice Michael Obus agreed to free the 62-year-old French banker from jail on one million dollars bail on condition that he be confined to a New York apartment under armed guard while he awaits trial on charges of attempted rape.

The lawyer who represented Strauss-Kahn at the hearing, William Taylor, called the ruling “a great relief for the family.”

Strauss-Kahn will not only have to post the full one million US dollars but will also have to take out a five million US dollars insurance bond. A trial date was not immediately set.

The banker is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper on Saturday at his 3,000-dollar-a-night hotel suite. The West African immigrant told police that he chased her down a hallway, forced her to perform oral sex and tried to remove her stockings.

He spent nearly a week behind bars after a judge denied him bail on Monday. At that hearing, prosecutors warned that Strauss-Kahn might flee to France to escape justice.

This time, Strauss-Kahn went before a different judge, and also offered to place himself under house arrest.

The bail decision came less than a day after Strauss-Kahn resigned as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, the powerful organisation that makes emergency loans to countries in financial crisis.

In his resignation letter, he denied the allegations against him but said he would quit in order to “protect this institution which I have served with honour and devotion” and to “devote all my strength, all my time and all my energy to proving my innocence”.

Strauss-Kahn did not speak during the court proceedings, but Mr Taylor said his state of mind was “much better now than before we started”.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office had argued against his release, citing the violent nature of the alleged offences and saying his wealth and international connections would make it easy for him to flee.

“The proof against him is substantial. It is continuing to grow every day as the investigation continues,” assistant district attorney John “Artie” McConnell told the judge. “We have a man who, by his own conduct in this case, has shown a propensity for impulsive criminal conduct.”

Meanwhile the battle to replace Strauss-Kahn as IMF chief continues, the current favourite for the role being France’s finance minister, Christine Lagarde. The IMF insists that the departure of Strauss-Kahn has not hurt its day-to-day operations, but is under pressure to find a successor fast.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she “very much appreciates the French finance minister.” She insisted she was not announcing Lagarde’s candidacy, just sharing her views.

Ms Merkel said the next IMF boss should be European, as the fund is deeply involved in tackling the eurozone’s sprawling debts crisis.