A civil servant has told a jury how it felt like "wrestling an octopus" as she tried to stop Alex Salmond grabbing her wrists and attempting to kiss her as he "recreated" a Christmas card scene featuring a scantily-clad female.

The woman claimed Mr Salmond, who was then the first minister, wanted to re-enact the Jack Vettriano painting, Ae Fond Kiss, which depicts a bespectacled man in a suit about to kiss a woman in a Father Christmas-style minidress under the mistletoe.

The painting by the Scottish artist had earlier been considered by Mr Salmond's team as a possible official 2010 Christmas card, but was deemed "inappropriate".

Giving evidence yesterday at the High Court in Edinburgh, the civil servant in the Scottish Government said she had told the first minister she thought the painting was "too sexualised" at a meeting in November 2010.

As the jury was shown the painting, she said: "There (were) two individuals on the Christmas card - the older male, taller with glasses, and a younger female, who was quite scantily clad. "I didn't think the image was appropriate. It showed the female leaning up to kiss the gentleman.

"I didn't think it was an appropriate image for the first minister and his wife to send out."

The woman, who was named only as Woman B, said she raised her reservations with Mr Salmond and others at the meeting, and explained: "My view was that the picture was too sexualised for him to send out."

She said that when she was later left alone with Mr Salmond in the drawing room of Bute House - the official residence of the First Minister - he attempted to sexually assault her as he suggested that they might try to recreate the scene in the painting.

Explaining how she was "gathering up papers" and preparing to leave, she added: "I was talking about policy issues. He immediately said, 'Come here. Let's recreate the pose of the Christmas card.'

"He grabbed my wrists and pulled me toward him. I was just shocked."

The woman added: "It felt like every time I managed to get a hand off, another would appear.

"He was very persistent and it felt like I was wrestling with an octopus. I felt like there was always another hand coming to my wrists.

"He just kept going, coming in to try to kiss me and I really didn't want that to happen. He was leaning toward me trying to pull me into him... I knew it was a sexual approach."

She said she felt "alarmed" and when a colleague came into the room she was "released" and left.

She said the male colleague appeared shocked and asked whether Woman B was OK. "I just wanted to get out," she said. "I was shocked and really surprised it had happened."

She said she threw away a charity wristband she had worn that night because she felt it had become "contaminated". The woman said she told a colleague, a line manager and her husband about the incident.

She told the court she did not report the incident further up the civil service chain because she feared it would be "swept under the carpet" and that she would be seen as "the problem".

Asked by Shelagh McCall QC, for the defence, whether Mr Salmond was in a "playful mood" engaging in "high jinks" that night, Woman B replied: "If he was in a light-hearted mood there was an underlying tone where you could never relax in his company."

The former Scottish National Party leader was formally acquitted of one count of sexually assaulting a woman after Alex Prentice QC, the advocate depute for the prosecution, withdrew the charge.

Mr Salmond, 65, from Strichen, Aberdeenshire, is accused of 13 counts of sexual assault against nine women. He denies all the charges.

The trial continues.