Former US presidential candidate John Edwards admits having affair while wife fought cancer

He admitted lying repeatedly during his run for the White House earlier this year but denied fathering the woman's daughter.

He said he had not loved his 42-year-old mistress, who was a member of his campaign team.

Former US Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has admitted to an affair while his wife was battling cancer

The bombshell will tarnish the image of the Democratic party in the presidential race but Barack Obama's aides had already moved to cut Mr Edwards adrift.

They will now be hoping he is not badly damaged by the scandal, but Republican rival John McCain's 'attack dog' strategists will be tempted to run advertisements highlighting how Mr Edwards endorsed Mr Obama after he pulled out of the contest.

Mr Edwards, 55, had been touted as a potential vice-presidential nominee, but his political career is now destroyed.

Months of rumours about an affair came to a head on Wednesday when the National Enquirer magazine published photographs it claimed showed Mr Edwards with his 'love child,' a five-month-old girl called Frances.

Yesterday, Mr Edwards told ABC News he had not taken a paternity test but claimed he knows he is not her father because of the timing of the affair and the birth.

He did not say when the affair began or how long it lasted.

ABC said a former Edwards campaign staffer claims he is the father, not Mr Edwards himself.

Mr Edwards was a top contender for the Democratic nomination for president, pursuing his party's nod even after announcing that his wife, Elizabeth, had a deadly form of cancer.

He placed second in the Iowa caucuses or party meetings last January but dropped out of the race a few weeks later.

The former North Carolina senator was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.

In 2006, Edwards' political action committee paid £50,000 in a four-month span to a newly-formed firm run by Rielle Hunter, who directed the production of just four Youtube videos, one a mere 2 1/2 minutes long.

Arm in arm: Edwards and his wife Elizabeth prior to the former U.S. presidential candidate's confession

In one clip Mr Edwards says: "I want to see our party lead on the great moral issues - yes, me a Democrat using that word - the great moral issues that face our country.

"If we want to live in a moral, honest just America and if we want to live in a moral and just world, we can't wait for somebody else to do it. We have to do it."

Miss Hunter's daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, was born on Feb. 27, 2008, and no father's name is given on the birth certificate filed in California.

The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, and  Mr Edwards denied it.

National Enquirer magazine carried stories about Edwards affair

"The story is false," he told reporters. "It's completely untrue, ridiculous."

Until last night Mr Edwards had repeatedly avoided answering more media questions about an affair with Miss Hunter, called the suggestion 'tabloid trash.'

Three weeks ago, the National Enquirer said its reporters caught him visiting Miss Hunter at a California hotel.

In the interview, scheduled to air on ABC News' "Nightline," he said the tabloid was correct when it reported on his meeting with Hunter at the Beverly Hills Hotel last month.

David Bonior, Mr Edwards' campaign manager for his 2008 presidential bid, said he was disappointed and angry after hearing about the confession.

"Thousands of friends of the senators and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he's let him down," said Bonior, a former congressman. "They've been betrayed by his action."