The leader of the International Monetary Fund tipped as a candidate for the French presidency was taken off a plane moments before take-off and questioned by police over a sex attack on a hotel maid.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken off the Air France flight at John F Kennedy International Airport last night, British time, by officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and handed over to police, said Paul Browne a spokesman for the New York Police Department.

"He's being arrested for a criminal sex act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment," Mr Browne said.

Father-of-four Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was being questioned by the NYPD special victims office, had retained a lawyer and was not making statements to police, Mr Browne said. No charges have yet been filed.

The 32-year-old maid told authorities that she entered Strauss-Kahn's room at the luxury Sofitel hotel not far from Manhattan's Times Square at about 1pm, to clean the large £1,850-a-night-suite, which she had been told was empty.

According to an account she provided to police, Strauss-Kahn emerged from the bathroom naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where he began to sexually assault her.

She said she fought him off, then he dragged her into the bathroom, where he forced her to perform a sex act on him and tried to remove her underwear. But the woman was able to break free again and escaped the room and told hotel staff who called police.

When detectives arrived moments later, Mr Strauss-Kahn had already left the hotel, leaving behind his mobile phone, Mr Browne said. "It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," he said.

The NYPD discovered that he was at the airport and contacted the Port Authority, whick plucked Mr Strauss-Kahn from first class on the Air France flight that was just about to leave the gate.

The maid was taken by police to a local hospital. John Sheehan, a spokesman for the hotel, said its staff was co-operating with the authorities in the investigation.

William Murray, a spokesman for the IMF in Washington, said the organisation had no immediate comment. Strauss-Kahn's offices in Paris could not be reached when the news broke overnight in France, nor could French Socialist Party officials.

He was meant to be meeting German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin today about aid to debt-laden Greece, and then join EU finance ministers in Brussels tomorrow and on Tuesday.

Strauss-Kahn took over as head of the IMF in November 2007. The 187-nation lending agency is headquartered in Washington and provides help in the form of emergency loans for countries facing severe financial problems.

He won praise for his leadership at the IMF during the financial crisis of 2008 and the severe global recession that followed.

More recently, he has directed the IMF's participation in bail-out efforts to keep a European debt crisis which began in Greece from destabilising the global economy.

But in October 2008 he issued an apology to IMF staff after accusations that he had a sexual relationship with an IMF subordinate.

"While this incident constituted an error in judgment on my part, for which I take full responsibility, I firmly believe that I have not abused my position," he wrote in an email to staff.

The IMF board found his actions "regrettable" and said they "reflected a serious error of judgment". The board found that the relationship was consensual.

The IMF employee left the fund and took a job with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Before taking the top IMF post Strauss-Kahn had been a member of the French National Assembly and had also served as France's minister of economy, finance and industry from June 1997 to November 1999.

He had been viewed as a leading contender to run on the Socialist Party's ticket to challenge the re-election of French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Strauss-Kahn, dubbed DSK in France, was seen as the strongest possible challenger to Mr Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections, but he has not declared his candidacy, staying vague in interviews while feeding speculation that he wants France's top job.

The New York accusations come amid French media reports about Strauss-Kahn's lifestyle, including luxury cars and suits, that some have dubbed a smear campaign.

He sought the Socialist Party's endorsement in the last elections in 2007, but came in second in a primary to Segolene Royal. Ms Royal, the first woman to get so close to France's presidency, lost to Mr Sarkozy in the run-off.

After he won Mr Sarkozy championed Strauss-Kahn as a candidate to run the IMF and the global financial crisis thrust him into an unexpectedly prominent role and boosted his global standing in time to consider a 2012 French presidential bid.

The former economics professor is also credited with preparing France for the adoption of the euro by taming its deficit and persuading then-prime minister Lionel Jospin to sign up to an EU pact of fiscal prudence.

His third wife, Anne Sinclair, is a New York-born journalist who hosted a popular weekly news broadcast in France in the 1980s.