FACTBOX-Key facts about White House aide Karl Rove

(Reuters) - Here are some key facts about Karl Rove, who said in an interview published on Monday that he will leave the White House as a close political adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush at the end of August.

EARLY LIFE:

* Born in Colorado in December 1950 and raised in several Western states, Rove attended the University of Utah but left before graduating. He began his political career during former President Richard Nixon's administration as head of the nationwide College Republicans.

* Rove first met Bush while working at the Republican National Committee in the mid-1970s and revived the friendship when he moved to Austin, Texas, in 1981 to set up shop as a political consultant.

ROLE IN GOVERNMENT:

* Rove has been praised as the chief strategist of Bush's 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and reviled by opponents as a ruthless political operative.

* Rove added policy development to his portfolio at the start of Bush's second term.

* In April 2006, Rove surrendered his role overseeing policy but remained a deputy White House chief of staff.

CONTROVERSY:

* Two years ago, the White House said Rove did not leak the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. Rove testified five times before a federal grand jury investigating the Plame leak and, in June 2006, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald decided not to indict Rove in his investigation into the leak.

* Earlier this month, citing executive privilege, Bush rejected a subpoena for Rove to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a probe of the firing of nine federal prosecutors.