French investigators are studying accusations that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was involved in a rape in a Washington hotel in 2010, a judicial official said.

An official at the prosecutor's office in the northern city of Lille said that investigating judges want to broaden their probe into a suspected prostitution ring to examine the rape claim.

Strauss-Kahn was handed preliminary charges for alleged "aggravated pimping" in the prostitution probe.

French daily paper Liberation said the accusation came from two Belgian prostitutes questioned in the prostitution probe.

Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, denied any violence in a statement issued through his lawyers.

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