CNN's Christian Amanpour bolts to ABC

Mar 19, 2010, 19:45 GMT

Los Angeles - Christiane Amanpour, CNN's star international correspondent, has bolted to US network ABC where she will host the channel's prestigious Sunday news show This Week, according to an announcement Friday.

Amanpour, 52, who rose to fame on CNN when she covered the 1990 Gulf War, will also contribute international coverage to ABC's other news broadcasts.

The appointment of an international affairs specialist to host a show focused on US domestic politics was questioned by US television analysts, but Amanpour told the Washington Post that her background would enable her to make the connection between domestic and international developments.

'This is an opportunity to explain domestic politics and how it impacts the world,' she said. 'I've always tried to make foreign news less foreign.'