IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been approved for medical examination on charges of serious sexual assault.
Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested on Saturday, denied the attack and tried to rape a hotel maid.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Sunday, but the court adjourned until Monday for forensic research.
Marriage former French finance minister is also considered a possible Socialist candidate for president.
He planned with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to meet on Sunday in Berlin and then a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday to attend a bailout for Portugal and Greece.
Correspondents say he has become the center of efforts to combat financial euro area member countries and to stabilize the detention tends to complicate the process.
The Euro fell half a cent to $1.4063 when Asian markets opened on Monday - a six-week low against the dollar - reflecting concerns about the impact the arrest could have on bailouts plans for Portugal and Greece.
Mr Strauss-Kahn - often referred to in France simply as DSK - had been detained at JFK airport on Saturday night as he prepared to fly to Europe.
He is believed to have been in New York on personal business and does not have diplomatic immunity.
The 62-year-old was kept overnight in a special unit for sexual harassment in New York's Harlem borough and on Sunday, charged with "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment, and attempted rape".
Police say the 32-year-old woman who made the allegations has formally identified him in a line-up.
'International conspiracy'
Speaking outside court in Manhattan, lawyer William Taylor said Mr Strauss-Kahn had "willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination", adding that he was "tired but fine".
A second lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said his client "intends to vigorously defend these charges and he denies any wrongdoing".
Mr Strauss-Kahn's wife, prominent French journalist Anne Sinclair, has also said she believes he is innocent.
"I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband," she said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency on Sunday.
The BBC's David Chazan says there has been a mixed reaction to the arrest in France, with some people seeing it as a national humiliation but others suggesting that he might have been set up by his political opponents.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was widely expected to announce his intention to run for the French presidency soon, and was seen as having a genuine chance of beating President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Paris regional councillor, Michelle Sabban, told AFP: "I am convinced it is an international conspiracy... This is a new form of political assassination."
Socialist legislator Jean-Marie Le Guen said: "The facts as they were reported today have nothing to do with the Dominique Strauss-Kahn whom we know."
Career damaged
Meanwhile a centre-right opponents of Mr Strauss-Kahn's, Dominique Paille, said if true it would be "an historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life".
"I hope that everyone respects the presumption of innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair," he told French TV.
But the leader of the National Front party, Marine Le Pen, said Mr Strauss-Kahn had been "definitively discredited".
Mr Strauss-Kahn has won praise for his stewardship of the IMF, which he has guided through difficult times including the recent world financial crisis.
In 2008, he was criticised by the IMF board for an affair with a subordinate member of staff. The board said the affair had been consensual but reflected a "serious error of judgement".
Our correspondent says following the latest accusations, there is little doubt in France that Mr Strauss-Kahn's political ambitions are now over.
John Lipsky has been appointed acting managing director of the IMF in his absence.
The fund's director of external relations, Caroline Atkinson, said the organisation remained "fully functioning and operational".
Source : BBC
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