French President Nicolas Sarkozy has rejected claims from Dominique Strauss-Kahn that agents loyal to Sarkozy had a hand in politicizing a sex scandal last May that cost the former IMF boss his job.

Nicolas Sarkozy adopted a combative tone on the campaign trail in central France on Saturday, saying that former IMF director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn should file a legal complaint if he believes that he was the victim of a political plot. The remarks followed claims by Strauss-Kahn that after a sex scandal last May in New York, "those with a political agenda" had orchestrated the event's aftermath.

"Enough is enough! I would tell Mr. Strauss-Kahn to explain himself to the judicial authorities and spare the French people his remarks," Sarkozy told thousands of supporters at a rally in Clermont-Ferrand.