COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said yesterday that he "crossed lines" with a handful of women other than his mistress - but never had sex with them.

The governor said he "never crossed the ultimate line" with anyone but Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine at the center of a scandal that has derailed his once-promising political career.

"This was a whole lot more than a simple affair; this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."

During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office yesterday with the Associated Press, Sanford said that Chapur was his soul mate but that he was trying to fall back in love with his wife.

He said that during the encounters with other women he "let his guard down" with some physical contact but "didn't cross the sex line." He wouldn't go into detail.

Sanford, 49, said the casual encounters happened outside the United States while he was married but before he met Chapur, on trips to "blow off steam" with male friends.

Sanford also admitted he had seen Chapur more times than previously disclosed, including what was to be a farewell meeting in New York chaperoned by a spiritual adviser soon after his wife found out about the affair.

After that disclosure, South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster said he asked for a review of all of Sanford's travel records to see if he broke any laws.

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

He said he saw her two other times, including their first meeting in 2001 at an open-air dance spot in Uruguay.

Sanford previously announced he would reimburse the state for money spent during a government trip to Brazil and Argentina in June 2008, when he saw Chapur. It was then, he said, that their relationship became physical, and the e-mails they subsequently exchanged reflected their anguish over what they had done.

He insists that he used no public money for any other meetings with her.

He saw Chapur again in mid-June, visiting Argentina without telling his staff he was going to be out of the country.

By the time he returned to a puzzled public, staff and family, his public image and emotional state had unraveled. He admitted the affair at a rambling news conference.

Now Sanford is trying to salvage his personal and professional lives. He and his wife, Jenny, parents of four sons, said they are trying to reconcile their 20-year marriage but have not been sharing the same house for several weeks.

Jenny Sanford did not immediately return a message from the Associated Press yesterday, but she said Friday that her husband had repeatedly sought permission to visit Chapur.

"I said absolutely not. It's one thing to forgive adultery," she said. "It's another thing to condone it." *