WASHINGTON, September 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Prominent U.S. senators and presidential hopefuls demanded Tuesday, September 30, U.S. President George W. Bush open a wider and independent probe into allegations that his administration leaked the name of a CIA agent after her husband publicly criticized White House claims that Iraq had tried to purchase nuclear material from Africa.

Some lawmakers urged hearings and others pushed for an independent investigation, citing potential political pressure on the Justice Department, which was asked by the Central Intelligence Agency to look into the matter, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"This is a very serious national security matter where there is a clear conflict of interest for the Attorney General because it could involve high-level White House officials," Senator Charles Schumer, a frequent critic of the Bush administration, told a press conference.

"This is one of the most reckless and nasty things I've seen in all my years of government," he said.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that White House officials were behind the disclosure that former ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was a Central Intelligence Agency agent, which could carry a hefty prison term.

Wilson was tasked with looking into claims Saddam Hussein sought uranium in Africa.

Leading Democratic senators called on Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the matter.

"We do not believe that the investigations of senior administration officials, possibly including high-level White House staff, can be conducted by the Justice Department because of the obvious and inherent conflict of interests involved," said the letters signed by senators Tom Daschle, Joe Biden, Carl Levin and John Rockefeller.

Democratic Representative Henry Waxman of the House Government Reform Committee, meanwhile, wrote the panel's Republican chairman, Tom Davis, to request hearings into the "disturbing" allegations.

Presidential front-runners believe this affair could do real damage to the reputation of the Bush White House.

Democratic Presidential hopefuls Howard Dean and Wesley Clark said a special investigator should be appointed, the BBC News Online reported.

"This administration has played politics with national security for a long time, but this is going too far," the BBC quoted Clark as telling reporters.

"This administration has played politics with national security for a long time, but this is going too far," Clark

However, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said McClellan derided what he called "ridiculous" allegations.

"It is simply not the way the White House operates," McClellan said in response to the Washington Post reports.

"There has been no information brought to us or that has come to our attention, beyond the media reports, to suggest that there was White House involvement," said McClellan.

The spokesman said that Bush would view the disclosure of such information as a "serious matter" to be "looked into and investigated to the fullest extent possible," and the perpetrator would be fired.

But McClellan said there were no plans for an internal White House investigation and it was unclear what, if any, action officials there took after the mid-July disclosure.

The Justice Department has launched a preliminary probe into the complaint into whether members of Bush's administration broke the law.

"In matters like this, as a matter of routine, a question like this is referred to the Justice Department for appropriate action, and that's what's going to be done," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told Fox television.

"It is simply not the way the White House operates," McClellan

Before the war in Iraq, Wilson was sent by the CIA to the West African state of Niger in order to investigate claims that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear material there. His report concluded that there was no evidence for the claims.

In an opinion piece printed in The New York Times on July 6 opinion piece, Wilson refuted Bush administration claims that Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Niger, writing in the article that U.S. intelligence was "twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

Despite this, Bush referred to the alleged purchase of Uranium in his State of the Union address in January.

After the opinion piece appeared, two top White House officials called "at least six Washington journalists" and revealed the name and occupation of Wilson's wife, the Post said, citing a senior administration official.

Columnist Robert Novak printed her name in a July 14 column in which he said she had recommended Wilson for the job, and that the decision to send Wilson was made at a low level without Tenet's knowledge.

"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," an administration official said of the calls.

Days after Wilson's disclosure, conservative writer Robert Novak cited "two senior administration officials" in a nationally syndicated July 14 column as saying that Wilson's wife was a CIA operative.