New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his city's police for parading a handcuffed Dominique Strauss-Kahn before the media after some French politicians voiced outrage over the IMF chief's "perp walk."

The International Monetary Fund managing director, considered a front-runner for the French presidency, was arrested over the weekend and charged with attempting to rape a hotel maid in New York.

Police transporting him from a jail cell to the courthouse walked him briefly in front of a battery of cameras on Sunday night with his hands cuffed behind the back.

"I think it is humiliating, but if you don't want to do the perp walk, don't do the crime," Bloomberg told reporters in the state capital, Albany, on Tuesday.

"I don't have a lot of sympathy for that. Our judicial system works where the public can see the alleged perpetrators," Bloomberg said.

Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang described the treatment of Strauss-Kahn as a "lynching" that had "provoked horror and aroused disgust." Others considered it degrading and offensive.

Bloomberg also defended a judge's decision to deny bail for Strauss-Kahn and keep him in jail pending further court proceedings.