The US: President Bush's chief political strategist, Mr Karl Rove, was the focus of new allegations yesterday concerning the outing by unnamed administration officials of an undercover CIA agent.
Ambassador Joseph Wilson, the CIA agent's husband, claimed that Mr Rove told a journalist his wife was "fair game" after she had been named in a column by conservative commentator Robert Novak in July.
White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan has dismissed as "ridiculous" any suggestion that Mr Rove was responsible for the leak, which could constitute a criminal offence, but refused yesterday to specifically deny Mr Wilson's new claim.
Under a bombardment of questions, a visibly nervous Mr McClellan brushed aside questions about Mr Rove discussing the story with journalists by saying: "Now we're getting into issues such as: did anyone talk about what was in the news, what was reported in the paper, things of that nature."
Mr Rove has faced accusations before that he planted stories with Mr Novak.
In 1992, he was fired as a consultant for the Bush-Quayle Texas campaign, after a column co-written by Mr Novak portrayed Republican disarray.
Mr McClellan also defended the administration's failure to take action when the CIA agent was named nearly three months ago. "There was no information brought to our attention beyond an anonymous source in media reports to suggest that there was White House involvement," he said.
Democrats, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, pressed for a special counsel yesterday, saying that Attorney General John Ashcroft was compromised by his friendship with Mr Bush in conducting a Justice Department inquiry.
With a criminal investigation under way, the White House counsel yesterday instructed staff to preserve all documents, e-mails, telephone records, memos, discs, diaries and calendar entries.
Democrats have raised questions about an 11-hour gap between Monday evening when the department told the White House of the investigation and Tuesday morning when White House staff were formally notified.
The counsel also said that all records should be preserved of contacts with the media about Mr Wilson and his wife, and specifically with Mr Novak and two Newsday reporters Knut Royce and Timothy Phelps, who ran a story in July about the Novak column, quoting an official who said the CIA agent was under cover.
Mr Wilson, a former ambassador to Iraq, had angered the White House by publicly disclosing he had, on behalf of the CIA, visited Niger and discounted reports of Saddam Hussein trying to buy uranium in Africa, before Mr Bush used it in a major pre-war speech.
Mr Wilson claims the job of his wife, Ms Valerie Plame, was leaked to imply that he was sent to Niger only because his wife recommended him.
Mr Wilson has backed away from accusing Mr Rove of leaking his wife's name, but said he had been told by a journalist that after Mr Novak's column appeared Mr Rove said she was "fair game".
Mr Novak has defended his actions, saying Ms Plame was simply an analyst and that she or her contacts were not compromised.
A former CIA counter-terrorism official, Mr Larry Johnson, has said: "I worked with this woman. She started training with me. She has been under cover for three decades." Mr Johnson said that as a Republican he was outraged at the smearing of a good agent. "This was about a political attack."
Mr Bush said on Tuesday: "I want to know who the leakers are" and promised full co-operation. The investigation is to be handled by 11 Justice Department lawyers led by Mr John Dion, chief of the counter-espionage section of criminal division.
The controversy has become a major embarrassment for Mr Bush, who promised to bring integrity to the White House. Republicans have accused Democrats of political opportunism in calling for a special counsel.
Federal law prohibits the unauthorised disclosure of a covert agent's name, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Some news executives expressed concern that the investigation could lead to subpoenas of reporters' notes and phone records, and of the journalists themselves.
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