SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will end his financial relationship with two fitness magazines that rely heavily on advertising from nutritional supplement companies, he said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.

He said he will relinquish his title as executive editor of Muscle & Fitness and Flex magazines and will not take further compensation.

"As long as I'm governor, I will not continue the relationship," Schwarzenegger told the AP.

He said he will continue the columns he has written for both magazines but added that he has no plans to return the money he has been paid so far for his consulting services.

"No, because we haven't done anything wrong," he said.

The governor was forced to defend his contract with the magazines after a securities disclosure filed this week showed he would be paid at least $1 million a year for five years to act as a consultant.

Last year, Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have regulated the use of performance-enhancing substances in high school sports. That led some lawmakers to accuse the governor of having a conflict of interest: acting on legislation that could hurt business in the nutritional supplements industry while at the same taking millions from magazines that rely on the same industry for most of their profits.

The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, on Thursday called on Schwarzenegger to sever his ties with the magazine.

In a statement issued Friday, Speier said she was pleased with Schwarzenegger's decision: "Regardless of the legality of the contract, it was time for him to be a leader and to sever the contract."

The governor said he wanted to leave no doubt that "the people have my full devotion."

"Sometimes there's two different things — there's reality and there's perception, and perception is very powerful," the governor told the AP. "Even though in reality there is nothing wrong with what we have done — and I'm proud of my contribution to the health industry and to making people, millions of people fit and inspired them to train all over the world — it is still to me that serving California is my priority."

Schwarzenegger's deal with a subsidiary of American Media Inc., Weider Publications, was disclosed in March 2004. But the amount he was being paid wasn't made public until the company filed documents on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

At the time of the announcement, Schwarzenegger said he would take a salary that was "petty compared to the movies." The magazines also agreed to donate $250,000 a year to the California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.

Schwarzenegger's deal required him to act as a consultant to several fitness magazines, including Muscle & Fitness and Flex. Both publications are packed with advertising for nutritional supplements, including products with such names as Blast Cycle: Thermonuclear Pump Agent and Axis HT Pro-Testosterone Amplifier.

A telephone call to American Media's office in Boca Raton, Fla., went unanswered late Friday. A telephone call to Weider Publications in Santa Monica wasn't immediately returned.

Schwarzenegger has had what he called Friday "an extraordinarily close personal and business relationship" with Weider Publications for more than 35 years and saw no reason to end it after the business was sold in 2003, the same year he was elected governor.

Schwarzenegger has been friends with the company's namesake, Joe Weider, since he came from Austria to America in 1968. When Weider was considering selling his company, he asked Schwarzenegger to speak with the potential buyers from American Media.

"One of the things that became clear was that everyone wanted to make sure that I'm still staying involved with the magazine and continue the same relationship and there is no change even if there is a new owner," Schwarzenegger said in the interview. "I said, look I want to assure you that is the case, and I will do everything I can to promote body building because I'm committed to that."

He emphasized that he will continue to promote weight lifting and fight obesity.

The governor has admitted using steroids during his days as a champion body builder, but has since denounced them. He has continued to promote nutritional supplements, however, and on Friday said he saw no reason to ban them.

"Any food supplement you take, all those are natural and will help you have more energy and help with your performance," the governor said. "… No reason I thought to outlaw food supplements, something I've been on my whole life."

In vetoing Speier's bill a year ago, the governor said it was flawed because it didn't clearly define supplements and failed to adequately address steroid use. Speier has a similar bill pending this year and Schwarzenegger said he would be "more than happy" to consider the redrafted version.

"I want to do everything I can to get rid of the performance enhancing (substances)," he said Friday.

Experts on state political law said the governor's work for the magazines may not have represented a technical conflict of interest because it could help an entire industry rather than an individual or specific entity.

California law allows elected officials to keep outside jobs, and Schwarzenegger does not accept his $175,000 annual salary from the state.

The contract between Weider and Schwarzenegger's production company, Oak Productions Inc., stated that Schwarzenegger would receive 1 percent of the magazines' advertising revenue each year for five years. The payment were to be no less than $1 million a year but could have reached much higher, according to the contract.

The governor's financial disclosure filings with the state show only that he received an undisclosed amount from American Media, which also publishes The National Enquirer, Star and other celebrity tabloids.

The SEC filing, which refers to Schwarzenegger as "Mr. S," also shows that American Media is paying $100,000 a year for five years to the Arnold Classic, an annual bodybuilding competition in Ohio.

The magazine's contribution to the Arnold Classic may also be discontinued because it is part of the severed contract, the governor's office said. The fitness council will continue receiving money because it's under a separate agreement.