DSK: I did try a smooch

Serial skirt chaser Dominique Strauss-Kahn admitted that he grabbed his French accuser -- but swore he quickly let go when she told the banking bigwig she had no interest in his portfolio.

I tried to take her in my arms,” the frisky Frenchman was quoted as telling investigators. “I tried to kiss her on the mouth.”

According to a transcript of Strauss-Kahn’s testimony to police obtained by AFP, the former International Monetary Fund chief confessed to having made an unwanted come-on but insisted he backed off when the woman rejected his awkward advance

She pushed back firmly. She cried out, more or less, ‘Are you mad?’ I immediately relaxed my grip,” he said. “She grabbed her things and left the flat, furious.”

The revelation comes a day after French prosecutors dropped their charges against Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was accused of trying to sexually assault journalist Tristane Banon in 2003.

Banon, 32, said Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her during a book interview. Banon did not press charges against Strauss-Kahn until this year, after a New York hotel maid made similar accusations.

During a televised interview last month, Strauss-Kahn said there was “no act of aggression” against Banon.

He said nothing at the time about an attempted kiss.

Regardless, his version of events is much different than the account Banon gave to police.

Banon said Strauss-Kahn invited her to a Paris apartment for an interview that ended with them wrestling on the floor, with the rising political star trying to open her jeans and bra.

But prosecutors in Paris, like those in New York, dropped the case.

For lack of sufficient elements of evidence, prosecution cannot be undertaken on the charge of attempted rape,” the French prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

However, it added that “facts that can be qualified as sexual assault have been acknowledged.”

Under French law, the statute of limitations for attempted rape is 10 years -- but only three years for sexual assault.

The outcome would be a moral victory for Strauss-Kahn, if he had any morals left.

The onetime French presidential hopeful’s name has been synonymous with sex scandals since May, when Strauss-Kahn was yanked off a Paris-bound flight and arrested after Sofitel Hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo accused him of attempted rape.

Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. dropped that case in August over questions about Diallo’s credibility.

Diallo has filed a civil suit. Banon has said she may do the same.

The decision to drop the case comes as voters are gearing up for primary elections tomorrow to choose a candidate from Strauss-Kahn’s Socialist Party for next year’s elections.

Until May, Strauss-Kahn had been seen as the party’s best hope to unseat conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.