WASHINGTON, April 6: President George Bush authorised Iraq intelligence leaks ahead of the invasion, indicted former top White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby said in court papers obtained on Thursday.

Mr Libby is suspected of having leaked to the press the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame — a federal crime in the United States.

According to a document filed on Wednesday by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Mr Libby said he spoke to a reporter in July 2003 after learning from Vice President Dick Cheney that Mr Bush had authorised intelligence leaks.

“Defendant’s participation in a critical conversation with Judith Miller ... occurred only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorised defendant to disclose certain information in the NIE” (National Intelligence Estimate), the document said.

Mr Libby denies charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in an intrigue bound up in the US drive to invade Iraq in 2003.

His trial has been set for January next year.

The case arose from a probe into the disclosure of Central Intelligence Agency spy Plame, exposed, Bush critics allege, by senior officials angry that her husband, ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticised the drive to invade Iraq.

The court document filed this week does not indicate, however, that Mr Bush or Mr Cheney told Mr Libby to unveil Valerie Plame.

But an opposition senator pounced on the revelation.

“The more we hear, the more it is clear this goes way beyond Scooter Libby. At the very least, President Bush and Vice President Cheney should fully inform the American people of any role in allowing classified information to be leaked,” said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer.

“Did they believe they had the right to do this and if so, in what circumstances, or is this just something that may have been done to accommodate the president’s momentary political needs,” Mr Schumer asked.

The CIA leak scandal was one of a string of dramas last year that helped dent President George Bush’s opinion poll ratings, and is still hanging over the White House.

Mr Bush’s political guru, Karl Rove, was not indicted along with Mr Libby last year, but has been told he is still under investigation.

Mr Libby resigned from his post as Cheney’s chief of staff when he was indicted.—AFP