BEIJING, July 13 -- The White House has said that U.S. President George W. Bush continues to have confidence in Karl Rove, the presidential adviser at the centre of the investigation into the leak identifying a female CIA officer.

    However, prominent Democrats are calling for Rove to be fired.

    At a news conference, White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed the president's stance.

    "Any individual who works at the White House has the confidence of the president." McClellan said.

    The White House insisted two years ago that Rove wasn't involved in the leak.

    In September of 2003, Bush himself declared, if there was a leak in his administration, he wanted to know who was responsible.

    According to a July 2003 email that surfaced over the weekend, Rove told Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper that the woman, Valerie Plame, had authorized a trip to Africa by her husband, U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson, to check out allegations that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger for nuclear weapons.

    Wilson had accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

    US Senator Charles Schumer called on Bush to follow through on his promise to fire leakers of Plame's identity.

    "I am asking the president to reaffirm that he wishes to get to the bottom of the Plame leak and to dismiss those involved, even if that person should be his long time associate, Karl Rove." Schumer said.

    Cooper's email is now in the hands of federal prosecutors who are attempting to identify those responsible for the leaks inside the Bush administration.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)