Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been granted bail after being indicted by a grand jury on seven charges, including two counts of sexual assault. He will be kept under 24-hour armed guard at a New York residence while he awaits trial. He was expected to be released within 24 hours after a $1m bond is posted and processed.

European policymakers scrambled yesterday to stake the continent’s claim to provide the next leader of the International Monetary Fund, following the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as managing director late on Wednesday.

The fund’s executive board, on which European countries hold just over 30 per cent of the votes, will probably appoint the next managing director within the next month or two, with candidates nominated by IMF member countries. The US holds another 17 per cent. Officials from Europe, which has provided every managing director since the IMF started to operate in 1946, said on Thursday that the difficulties in western European economies argued for the tradition to be continued.