The New York apartment building where former IMF leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn is under house arrest on sexual assault charges has become a new tourist hot spot.

Meanwhile, the IMF has been working to find a successor to lead an organisation that provides billions in loans to stabilise the world economy.

France’s Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, has emerged as a front-runner to replace Strauss-Kahn, but emerging economies have pressed for an end to Europe’s traditional stranglehold on the position of IMF managing director.

Yesterday, open-top buses passed by, with cameras pointed at the luxury high-rise in lower Manhattan where Strauss-Kahn was holed up with his wife, Anne Sinclair.

She left in the late morning, getting into an SUV, destination unknown. Ms Sinclair returned about four hours later.

Ms Sinclair, a prominent French TV journalist before her marriage to Strauss-Kahn, has stood by her husband since his arrest last Sunday. The 62-year-old economist is accused of sexually assaulting a maid last weekend in his 3,000 US dollar-a-night hotel suite at the Sofitel, near Manhattan’s Times Square. He has denied the allegations.