Mexico City, Aug 3 (IANS/EFE): Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who intends to run for president in Mexico's 2012 elections, told the gossip magazine Quien of his budding romance with former Honduran diplomat Rosalinda Bueso.

Ebrard, who at the beginning of this year divorced the Mexican actress Mariagna Prats, appears on the magazine's latest cover embracing his new girlfriend.

The 51-year-old mayor reveals the details of his relationship with "Rosy", while Bueso, 34, says she fell in love with "a gentle, affectionate man".

Ebrard plans a run for the Mexican presidency, as does outgoing Mexico state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto, who after his wife's passing wed actress Angelica Rivera, known as "La Gaviota" (The Seagull).

Some followers on Twitter think that Rosalinda is beautiful and "even prettier than La Gaviota". Bueso is on the list of Trending Topics.

Ebrard - who governs a metropolis of some 9 million inhabitants - told radio stations that he made his romance public because of his ambition to be a candidate in the 2012 presidential elections.

He said it was too soon to talk about marriage.

Bueso was the Honduran ambassador to Mexico at the time of the June 2009 coup that toppled President Mel Zelaya. Like many of her colleagues in the diplomatic corps, she was fired by the new regime in Tegucigalpa.

The former ambassador decided to stay in Mexico and, according to Quien, her love affair with the mayor began a few months ago.

Ebrard has three children with his first wife, Francesca Ramos.