New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner has admitted sending explicit messages to a woman, two years after he left Congress over a similar affair.

An unnamed woman told website The Dirty she had an online relationship with the 48-year-old last year.

Mr Weiner, who has been leading polls of Democratic mayoral candidates, said he was "very sorry".

In 2011, he said his Twitter account was hacked, but then admitted sending lewd photos to young women.

Flanked by his wife, Huma Abedin, at a press conference on Tuesday in New York, he apologised while reading from a prepared statement.

He also said he would not drop out of the city's mayoral race, which will be decided by voters in November. Three of his rivals immediately called on him to stand aside.

'Horrible mistakes'

Mr Weiner told reporters: "This behaviour is behind me. I've apologised to my wife, Huma, and I'm grateful that she has worked through these issues with me and that I've had her forgiveness.

"I want to again say how very sorry I am to anyone who was on the receiving end of these messages and the disruption that this has caused."

He said some of the latest reports were inaccurate, but refused to go into detail.

Ms Abedin then took to the podium and said: "Our marriage, like many others, has had its ups and its downs. It took a lot of work and a whole lot of therapy to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony."

She continued: "Anthony's made some horrible mistakes, both before he resigned from Congress and after. But I do very strongly believe that it's between us and our marriage."

"I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him," she added.

'Carlos Danger'

Briefly taking questions after the statements, Mr Weiner admitted that some of the online activity in question had taken place as late as summer last year.

The woman at the centre of the latest allegations has said they began exchanging messages in July 2012 and continued for six months.

She said she was 22 years old when they made contact on the social networking website Formspring.

The woman claimed Mr Weiner had used the alias "Carlos Danger" for their racy exchanges.

"I was young and dumb," The Dirty quoted her as saying.

"I just want people to really know he's lying when he acts like he has changed."

Mr Weiner has previously said he should not have denied posting lewd photos on Twitter in 2011.

He said he only did so because he wanted to keep the truth from his then-pregnant wife, who is a former adviser to Hillary Clinton.

She gave birth to the couple's son, Jordan, later that year.

Mr Weiner will find out how damaging his latest conduct has been in September's primary elections, when Democratic voters decide if he or one of his rivals should represent their party in the mayoral race.

He is not the only disgraced politician aiming for a comeback.

Two weeks ago, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer - who resigned in 2008 after admitting to paying for sex with prostitutes - announced his candidacy for city comptroller.

據(jù)BBC近日消息，兩年前由于“猥褻照”事件離開美國國會的前議員安東尼·韋納，作為下屆紐約市長的熱門人選，近日又爆出了“艷照門”，他承認曾在社交網(wǎng)站上發(fā)送露骨信息給一名年輕女子。

在妻子胡瑪·阿貝丁的陪伴下，安東尼·韋納于本周二在紐約舉行了新聞發(fā)布會，宣讀了事先準備好的講稿，并就自己的所作所為致歉。

“我現(xiàn)在早已痛改前非。我已經(jīng)向我的妻子胡瑪?shù)肋^歉了，非常感激她始終不離不棄地陪伴著我經(jīng)歷這一切，并且原諒了我。對于那些看到我照片的人，很抱歉打擾了你們的生活，我再次向你們道歉。”安東尼在發(fā)布會上說。

據(jù)指控安東尼的女子稱，她和安東尼于2012年7月起開始在社交網(wǎng)站Formspring上互發(fā)信息，當時她22歲。安東尼將他們間的猥褻對話稱作“卡洛斯危險”，這種關系一直持續(xù)了半年。

“我只是想告訴大家，他雖然表現(xiàn)得好像已經(jīng)洗心革面了，但其實只是在欺騙大眾?！边@名女性告訴The Dirty網(wǎng)站的記者。

2011年，安東尼曾爆出在推特上發(fā)布猥褻照片的丑聞，但當時他稱自己賬號被盜，后來又承認確有此事，并聲明此前之所以否認是因為不希望刺激當時有孕在身的妻子。

在今年九月即將進行的紐約市長初選中，安東尼將深刻意識到這次“艷照門”所帶來的惡劣影響。屆時，民主黨選民將決定他或者其競爭對手是否能夠代表他們的政黨參與市長競選。