Strauss-Kahn bound for France?

NEW YORK — Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn was believed to be heading to his native France on Saturday, leaving the United States behind after the collapse of a sensational sexual assault case that cost him his job and possibly his French presidential ambitions.

Strauss-Kahn, his wife, Anne Sinclair; and his daughter Camille left his rented New York City town home on Saturday afternoon, carrying about a half-dozen pieces of luggage. He didn’t say where he was going, but French media have reported he was expected to board a plane to Paris.

It would be the diplomat and economist’s first return to his native France since his May arrest on charges of forcing a hotel housekeeper to perform oral sex and trying to rape her.

Strauss-Kahn, 62, spent almost a week in jail, six weeks on house arrest and nearly two more months barred from leaving the country before Manhattan prosecutors dropped the case last week, saying they no longer trusted the maid, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo.

Diallo is continuing to press her claims in a lawsuit. Strauss-Kahn denies the allegations.

Strauss-Kahn has been free to travel internationally since his passport was returned late last week. He’d told reporters he was eager to return to France, but he first took a trip to Washington, D.C., on Monday to bid farewell to former IMF colleagues at the lending agency’s headquarters. He had resigned days after his arrest.

He returned Thursday to the $50,000-a-month Manhattan town home he had rented for his house arrest.