RIGHT-WING political commentator Robert Novak, who publicly revealed the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, has resigned from CNN and been offered a career lifeline by Fox News.

Novak, 74, will commence with Rupert Murdoch's cable television network in January, when his contract with CNN expires on December 31.

Both CNN and Novak agreed it would be best if he left.

The move ends Novak’s 25-year career at Time Warner's CNN, for which he also writes a column for the Chicago Sun-Times.

His July 2003 story identifying Plame sparked a Washington investigation that led to the perjury indictment of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

Novak said Friday he will continue to write his syndicated newspaper column. He declined to comment on the ongoing investigation into Libby and others associated with the major security breach.

Novak said he didn't think his departure from CNN was connected to the Plame matter. The probe didn't play a part in CNN's decision, network spokesman Edie Emery said.

CNN first aired Novak in 1980 on the political debate program, ``Crossfire''. He later hosted the discussion program, ``Evans & Novak,'' which became, ``Novak, Hunt and Shields'' after co-host Rowland Evans died. He's also served as a panelist on CNN's ``The Capital Gang”.

Novak disclosed Plame's identity eight days after her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, published an essay in the New York Times that criticized President George W. Bush's justification for invading Iraq.

Time Magazine followed with a story suggesting government officials had disclosed Plame's name, a potential violation of a federal law that makes it a crime to knowingly reveal a covert agent's identity.

The federal investigation into the affair led to the imprisonment of former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who interviewed government officials on the Plame story. Miller in July went to jail for refusing to disclose her sources, and served 85 days before being freed after agreeing to testify in the leak probe. Miller left the New York Times last month.

Libby resigned as Cheney's chief of staff after being indicted for obstruction, perjury and making false statements by a federal grand jury in the leak investigation.

In a speech he gave in North Carolina last week, Novak said he would “be amazed” if George W. Bush did not know who within his administration leaked Plame's name.