In an email dated yesterday and sent to International Monetary Fund staff around the world, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Strauss-Kahn expressed "profound sadness and frustration" at having had to resign his position to face the charges.
"I deny in the strongest possible terms the allegations which I now face; I am confident that the truth will come out and I will be exonerated," he wrote.
"In the meantime, I cannot accept that the Fund --- and you dear colleagues -- should in any way have to share my own personal nightmare. So, I had to go."
The French politician was arrested on May 14 at New York's JFK airport on allegations by a chambermaid at the luxury Sofitel hotel in Times Square that he attacked her and tried to rape her just hours earlier.
He is under house arrest in a New York apartment after being released on bail.
Published 23 May 2011, 15:37 IST