BUENOS AIRES (Argentina) - SOUTH Carolina's wandering governor didn't give away her name when he confessed to having an affair with an Argentine woman, but Ms Maria Belen Chapur has finally stepped forward.

FLUENT IN FEW LANGUAGES NEIGHBOURS who know Ms Chapur say she lives with her 15- and 19-year-old sons. She is no longer with her husband, a soy exporter, the neighbours said, but it isn't clear if she is separated or divorced. Ms Chapur spent her elementary and high school years at St Catherine's, an expensive private school in Buenos Aires' posh Belgrano district. ... more

After evading hordes of local and foreign journalists who besieged her apartment building for five days amid rumours it was her, Ms Chapur issued a brief statement on Sunday confirming a relationship with Gov Mark Sanford - although she didn't use the word 'affair'.

In fact, the 41-year-old mother of two children didn't directly mention the governor in the statement sent to C5n, a local all-news cable television channel. She mainly criticised the leaking of e-mail correspondence taken without permission from her Hotmail account that described the relationship with Mr Sanford.

Ms Chapur made clear the statement was her final comment and she has no intention of talking about her private life.

That likely will disappoint people who have been enthralled by the story, both those appalled by Mr Sanford's infidelity and those enchanted by his obvious love for her - a woman that one of Mr Sanford's e-mails says he was drawn to because she has 'the ability to love unconditionally. The rarest of all commodities in this world of love'.

The only image of Mr Chapur seen these days is a brief video of a news dispatch she filed from New York for an Argentine channel shortly after the Sept 11, 2001, terror attack on the US.

At that time, she travelled frequently between Argentina and the United States, according to local media. It was around that time - eight years ago, the governor said in his tearful confession on Wednesday - that they met, at an 'open air dance spot' in the Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este, according to one of the leaked e-mails.

After the news of the relationship broke, her apartment building was staked out by dozens of reporters, cameramen and photographers, locals and Americans, unsuccessfully trying to grab a glimpse and some words from her.

Mr Heber Alvarez, a doorman at the building, described Ms Chapur as 'well mannered, soft spoken, elegant'. But he refused to go in detail, saying he didn't want to risk his job.

He did say she is an avid sports fan who works out at a gym and jogs frequently near the building, which is across the street from the city zoo in the upper-class Palermo neighbourhood. She is listed among participants in several 10-kilometre races in recent years.

Mr Carlos Sosto, a restaurant owner who said he knows Ms Chapur as a neighbourhood resident, refused to confirm reports that she dined at his place last week with Mr Sanford. Without naming anyone, he suggested she has influential friends who asked him not to talk with reporters. -- AP