BEIJING, July 11 -- Top White House advisor Karl Rove talked to Time magazine about former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent, Newsweek magazine reported in its latest edition, citing Rove's lawyer.

    Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, said Rove recently gave Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper permission to testify about the conversation to a grand jury investigating the leak in 2003, according to Newsweek.

    It is illegal to knowingly reveal the identity of a covert CIA agent.

    A U.S. federal judge ordered Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller to testify and reveal their confidential sources.

    Last week Cooper avoided a jail sentence by agreeing to testify in the case. Miller refused to testify and was jailed.

    Although Rove has made statements about the Plame leak, he has never publicly acknowledged talking to any reporter about the CIA agent. Enditem

(Agencies)