Jailed Reporter Freed After Agreeing to Give Evidence

The New York Times reporter jailed for refusing to testify about the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity has been released after agreeing to give evidence.

Judith Miller was freed yesterday when she agreed to give evidence to the grand jury investigating the leak of Valerie Plame's name.

She said her source, identified in the New York Times as vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, had released her from her "promise of confidentiality".

Miller left the federal detention centre in Virginia late last night after reaching an agreement with special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. She will appear before a grand jury investigating the case later today.

"My source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations," she said.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr, the publisher of the New York Times, said: "As we have throughout this ordeal, we continue to support Judy Miller in the decision she has made. We are very pleased that she has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of confidentiality and enabling her to testify."

Miller was sent to jail on July 6 even though she had not identified Ms Plame, the wife of the controversial former ambassador Joseph Wilson, in any of her articles.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the White House exposed Ms Plame in retaliation for her husband's criticism of George Bush's arguments for going to war in Iraq.

Another journalist, Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, agreed to testify after saying he received the "express personal consent" of his source.

Cooper told the grand jury President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, had been the first person to tell him about Ms Plame.