AP NewsBreak: SC gov admits additional liaisons

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Gov. Mark Sanford admitted today he saw his Argentine mistress more times than previously disclosed.

Sanford told The Associated Press one of the trips included what was supposed to be a farewell meeting in New York chaperoned by a spiritual adviser soon after his wife found out about the affair.

Sanford described five meetings with Maria Belen Chapur over the past year, including two romantic, multi-night stays in New York before they met there again intending to break up.

He says he met her first in 2001 at an open-air dance spot in Uruguay and a coffee date in New York in 2004 during the Republican National Convention. He says neither time was romantic.

It was the first disclosure of any liaisons with Chapur in the United States. It contradicts a confession after his trip to Argentina last week.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.