Bush 'is condoning crime' by saving friend from jail

Outrage greeted the US president's comments that the sentence was "excessive".

Mr Bush's political thunderbolt in a highly charged criminal case came five hours after a federal appeals panel ruled that Libby could not delay starting his prison term.

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That meant Libby would have had to report to prison soon and it put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by his allies to pardon him.

Mr Bush, a friend of Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, said in a statement: "I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr Libby is excessive.

"Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr Libby's sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison."

Mr Bush's decision enraged Democrats and cheered Republicans - although some wished Mr Bush had granted a full pardon.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid said: "Libby's conviction was the one faint glimmer of accountability for White House efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war.

"Now, even that small bit of justice has been undone."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Mr Bush's decision showed the President "condones criminal conduct".

Unlike a pardon, which would have wiped out Libby's criminal record, the commutation erased only the prison term. The president-left intact a $250,000 (£123,000) fine and two years' probation for lying and obstructing justice in an investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity.

Mr Bush said his action still "leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr Libby".

The former agent, Valerie Plame, claims the White House was trying to discredit her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a vocal critic of Mr Bush's Iraq policy.

Libby was convicted in March, the highest-ranking White House official sent to prison since the Iran-Contra affair in 1987.

Testimony in the case had revealed the extraordinary steps that Mr Bush and Mr Cheney were willing to take to discredit a critic of the Iraq war.

Libby's supporters celebrated. "President Bush did the right thing today in commuting the prison term for 'Scooter' Libby," said House Republican whip Roy Blunt of Missouri.

"Libby did not deserve to go to prison and I'm glad the president had the courage to do this," said former ambassador Richard Carlson, who helped raise millions for Libby's defence fund.

Already at record lows in the polls, Mr Bush was risking a political backlash. President Gerald Ford tumbled in the polls after his 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon, and the decision was a factor in Mr Ford losing his bid for re-election.