LIMA Presidential hopeful Alejandro Toledo has a formidable campaign weapon: his photogenic and strong-willed Belgian wife, Eliane Karp, whose familiarity with ancient Andean cultures, including the Quechua language, has helped galvanize grass-root support for her husband.

Wherever Toledo went on the stump, the U.S.-educated anthropologist went along, drawing wild cheers from the crowds, particularly when she performed a traditional Huayno dance. On occasion she would take the microphone, proving she is as fiery a speaker as her husband.

The son of Andean Indian farmers, Toledo owes much of his popularity to his marked indigenous features. The fact Karp speaks fluent Quechua, the ancient Inca language has proved a major boost to his campaign.

She does not hide the fact she played a key role in shaping the campaign, and insists that while they may have had personal disagreements in their often stormy marriage, they have absolutely no ideological differences.

Campaign aides may agree or not, but they know better than to argue with Karp, a petite woman with a shock of red hair and a reputation for a strong will and a temper to match.

Karp, 47, said the planning of the campaign goes back to the 1970s, when the two met on campus at Stanford, California.

"We have been working on this a very long time," she said, as her husband whipped up emotions among a crowd of tens of thousands gathered at a central Lima Square.

She laughs at the comparison with former U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton, though she does not reject it, and insists she would be an active, "full-time first lady in blue jeans."

"I want to deal with issues like agriculture, I want to work with the campesinos'," she said in French, using the Spanish term for peasants. "I want particularly to work with women and children, to deal with malnutrition in the countryside," she told AFP.

She says she hopes to put into practice what she learned about "collective agricultural life."

She envisions her future job as informal, but demanding. "I will be a full-time first lady in blue jeans," she says.

She's not sure what kind of office she would hold in a Toledo government, though she says she could not become a minister as she does not hold Peruvian citizenship.

The fact she does not have a Peruvian passport has lead to media speculation that she may not be married to Toledo. She laughs off the rumor, saying she has become used to what she calls "a dirty campaign" by political rivals.

Ironically, it was her who revealed one of the scandals that has dogged Toledo for much of the campaign, claiming last year that her husband had been kidnapped, drugged and filmed. She suggested the extraordinary plot was staged by agents of then-president Alberto Fujimori.

Karp herself has been at the center of media attention during months of campaigning marked by wild allegations, mudslinging and some very real scandals, like the cash-for-favors affair that led to the ouster of Fujimori in November, only six months after he defeated Toledo in May 2000 elections.

Some people in Macho Peru take exception to the strong role Karp played in the campaign and hopes to play in a Toledo government, while some politicians have said that as a foreigner, she had no business meddling in the politics of this South American cou ntry.

Born in Paris to Belgian parents, Karp, who says she speaks seven languages, also holds a passport from the United States, where she met her husband in 1975.

The two soon married, and had a daughter, Chantal, now 18. They both worked as consultants for the World Bank and other organizations, separated for 10 years, but eventually got together again and formed a formidable campaign team, AFP reported.