Political writer ill

Conservative United States political commentator Robert Novak has been diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Novak, 77, fell ill on Cape Cod at the weekend while visiting his daughter and was rushed to hospital in Boston.

"I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period," said Novak, editor of the Evans-Novak Political Reports and a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades.

He was criticised after he was the first to publicly reveal the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame in a 2003 column.