COLUMBIA, S.C. -- South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford struggled to salvage his increasingly precarious political career yesterday, calling a last-minute meeting of his Cabinet and saying he would repay the government after travel documents showed that he used a state-funded trade trip to Argentina to have a secret romantic rendezvous with his mistress.

Lawmakers began calling on the two-term Republican governor to resign as South Carolina reeled the day after he bared his soul and admitted he was having an extramarital affair and deceiving his staff and the public about his whereabouts for a week.

Around Columbia's copper-domed Civil War-era state Capitol, where the Confederate battle flag still flies, politicians and constituents voiced disbelief and disgust over Mr. Sanford's adultery and abandonment of the state.

Meanwhile, the security officers responsible for Mr. Sanford's safety described their anxious and failed efforts to locate the missing governor over the Father's Day weekend and painted a picture of a politician who often ducks away to be alone. Mr. Sanford's security detail said they could not locate the state-issued SUV he escaped in because the tracking devices inside were turned off.

Mr. Sanford, 49, once considered a possible presidential candidate, suddenly has few defenders in Columbia, as some Republican leaders joined Democratic officials in saying he should resign his office.

He left the capitol city yesterday and secluded himself at his beach home on Sullivan's Island near Charleston, where his wife, Jenny, and their four sons had been staying without him. He was repairing his relationship with his family, his spokesman said, but is due back in Columbia today at 12:30 for a Cabinet meeting he hastily called.

Still, the drumbeat grew from across the Palmetto State for Mr. Sanford to give up the governorship. Glenn McCall, a South Carolina representative to the Republican National Committee, cited Mr. Sanford's past criticism of former President Bill Clinton's infidelity to accuse him of hypocrisy, and said Mr. Sanford should resign. Even RNC Chairman Michael Steele told a Detroit radio station that Mr. Sanford is "yet one more disappointment in failed leadership."

Republican state House Speaker Robert W. Harrell Jr. said in an interview he was concerned that South Carolina was "basically without a governor for five days. Had we had a catastrophe like a tornado or earthquake, or if something happened in a prison or a train wrecked, we'd have been without a chief executive." In Columbia, there are myriad political calculations at play that could influence

Mr. Sanford's future, including a succession plan should he resign. If that were to happen, he would hand the reins to fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer; the two officials do not get along. Mr. Bauer would then instantly become the party's presumptive nominee for the 2010 governor's race, hurting the chances of other Republicans who have already begun campaigns for the office.

New details emerged yesterday regarding Mr. Sanford's affair with the Argentine woman. Mr. Sanford led a delegation of state government and business leaders to Brazil and Argentina, for trade meetings from June 21 to 28, 2008. The governor said he was going sightseeing June 27 in Buenos Aires, but e-mails show that he was actually spending that day with his mistress.

Mr. Sanford's travels cost taxpayers at least $9,000 in air fare, lodging, meals and phone charges, according to state records. The governor said in a statement yesterday that he would reimburse the state.