Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will receive a one-off severance payment of $250,000. However, his income from pension and related payments will be far less in future years, Reuters reported.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn leaves the New York Police Department Special Victims Unit headquarters in Harlem May 15, 2011. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said recently in a statement that "former Managing Director Strauss-Kahn's annual pension and related entitlements have been grossly over-estimated in media reports this week, and appear based erroneously on a one-off separation payment of $250,000."

It said "the annual payments would be far, far less than that amount in subsequent years."

Strauss-Kahn resigned from the IMF on May 18 after being charged with sexual assault and attempted rape on a hotel maid in New York on May 14. He denied the charges and his lawyer said he would plead innocent.

The Mail Online said American taxpayers will help fund the payment and Strauss-Kahn is also due to be handed a pension.

It said US Congressmen reacted angrily to the deal but admitted that they could do nothing to stop it from going ahead.

The IMF said as the severance pay is written down in Strauss-Kahn's contract that it had no choice but fulfilled it.

A debate about whether the next IMF head should be from a European country or a developing nation continues around the world.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announced on Wednesday her candidacy. European Union leaders said they wanted a European to become IMF chief when European countries are dealing with a debt crisis.

Directors of Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa said that next IMF director should be chosen on the basis of competence and not on the basis of nationality.

The nomination period for the post will end on June 10.