=Strauss-Kahn had taken note of journalist Tristane Banon's intention to lodge an attempted rape complaint against him, the lawyers said, dismissing the claims as "imaginary" and adding they were "in the process of compiling a libel complaint" against Banon.
The ex-chief of the International Monetary Fund, currently accused of sexual offences against a New York maid, "notes that the complaint (by Banon) ... comes at a time when the untruthful nature of the accusations he faces in the United States are no longer in any doubt," the statement said.
As a result, Strauss-Kahn has directed lawyer Henri Leclerc and his associate Frederique Baulieu to draw up a complaint of slander against Banon, it added.
Earlier in the day Banon's lawyer David Koubbi told the website of French news magazine L'Express that he had been instructed to file a complaint of attempted rape against Strauss-Kahn this week.