Pressure eases on South Carolina governor

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford speaks to the media about his secret trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina and admits to an extramarital affair at the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, June 24, 2009.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - South Carolina Republicans have voted to censure the state's governor Mark Sanford over a sex scandal rather than calling for his resignation, easing pressure on their beleaguered colleague to quit.

The party issued the censure late on Monday to admonish Sanford over his affair with an Argentine woman and said he had "breached the public trust" and demonstrated "repeated failures" but stopped short of recommending further action.

Sanford, a conservative who had been seen as a possible Republican presidential candidate for 2012, has said he would try to repair relations with his wife and four sons, although he described the Argentinian woman as "the love of my life."

The chairwoman of the South Carolina Republicans called for an end to the three-week scandal that began when Sanford disappeared for several days. Aides said he was hiking in the Appalachian but it later emerged he had gone to visit his lover in Argentina.

"Now is the time for healing," said chairwoman Karen Floyd.

Sanford said on Tuesday he would spend this week working in the state capital, Columbia. He had previously said he did not intend to resign, despite calls from state newspapers and politicians urging him to quit.

His chances of riding out the storm improved each day, especially if there are no more damaging revelations, said Charles Bierbauer of the University of South Carolina.

"The statement from the state Republican Party was a slap on the wrist. It doesn't suggest that the party wants to make a change at this time," said Bierbauer, dean of the university's college of mass communications and information studies.

"If there is nothing else out there, then he is in a better position to ride this out over the next days, weeks and months," he said, adding Sanford would likely be the "lamest of lame ducks".

Politicians in the largely Republican state have started jockeying for position ahead of a gubernatorial election due November 2010. Sanford cannot run again because of term limits.

Many South Carolina voters were starting to move beyond the scandal and consider what state government could achieve to redress the biggest U.S. recession in decades, which has hit the state particularly hard, analysts said.

(Editing by Jim Loney and Alan Elsner)