KARL ROVE, President Bush’s chief political adviser, was at the centre of the controversy yesterday over who leaked a CIA agent’s identity to the press, hours after a reporter for The New York Times was jailed for her role in the affair.

Judith Miller was jailed on Wednesday after defying a court order to reveal her source to prosecutors who are investigating how the identity of the agent, Valerie Plame, was leaked to the press two years ago.

A second reporter, Matthew Cooper, of Time magazine, avoided jail when he said in court on Wednesday that he had just received a phone call from his government source releasing him from their confidentiality agreement, so he could give evidence before a grand jury investigating the leak of Ms Plame’s name.

Mr Cooper did not name the source, but The New York Times reported yesterday that his announcement followed discussions on Wednesday morning between lawyers representing Mr Rove and Time. The newspaper reported that “a person who has been officially briefed in the case” said that Mr Cooper was referring to Mr Rove as the source for his story about Ms Plame.

Robert Luskin, Mr Rove’s lawyer, acknowledged last week that his client had spoken to Mr Cooper in July 2003 about the Plame story, three or four days before her name became public. It is a criminal offence to identify a covert CIA operative. But his client denied telling any reporter that Ms Plame worked for the CIA. Mr Luskin said: “Cooper called Rove during that week . . . but Karl absolutely did not identify Valerie Plame.”

Adding to the confusion yesterday, Mr Luskin told The Washington Post that Mr Rove was not the source who called Mr Cooper on Wednesday morning. Mr Luskin said: “Karl has not asked anybody to treat him as a confidential source.” Mr Rove refused to comment on the report in The New York Times.

Ms Plame’s name and role as an undercover CIA agent was first revealed by Robert Novak, a conservative political columnist, in July 2003. Shortly before Mr Novak’s column appeared, Ms Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, had publicly accused the Bush Administration of exaggerating the case for war with Iraq.

He based his assertion on a CIA-sponsored trip that he took to Niger to investigate claims made by Mr Bush in a State of the Union address that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger. After Mr Wilson’s assertion that the Niger claim was bogus, Mr Novak revealed Ms Plame’s status, saying that her role as a secret CIA operative had been revealed to him by two senior Administration officials.

Several days after Mr Novak’s article appeared, Mr Cooper wrote in Time that “some Administration officials” had told him that “Valerie Plame is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction”.

The revelation sparked accusations that the Bush Administration had leaked the information to imply that Mr Wilson’s trip was a junket arranged by his wife and to discredit and unnerve Mr Wilson.

Mr Wilson and Democrats accused the White House of endangering Ms Plame for political purposes.

Under pressure, Mr Bush authorised a criminal investigation, headed by Patrick Fitz- gerald, a special counsel. Mr Fitzgerald’s investigation has included interviews with Mr Bush, Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, Mr Rove, Vice-President Cheney’s chief of staff and several journalists, including Mr Novak.

Last week Ms Miller and Mr Cooper appeared to be the only reporters who had refused to co-operate. Ironically, Ms Miller made telephone calls on the Plame story but never wrote a piece.

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