Mike Wallace, the combative television journalist known for his tough questioning of the famous and the infamous, is retiring from '"60 Minutes" after 38 years on the program, CBS announced yesterday.

Although the 87-year-old Brookline native told the "Globe" just three months ago that he would work ''until his toes turn up," Wallace said yesterday in a statement that his toes are ''just beginning to curl a trifle."

''It's become apparent to me that my eyes and ears, among other appurtenances, aren't quite what they used to be," said Wallace. ''And the prospect of long flights to wherever in search of whatever are not quite as appealing," he added.

The journalist stated that his decision to step aside at the end of the television season this May is voluntary: ''CBS is not pushing me." Still, he will remain a correspondent, available for ''whatever chore" the network cooks up for him in the future.

Wallace has worked on "60 Minutes" since 1968, interviewing newsmakers around the globe, from Anwar Sadat and the Ayatollah Khomeini to Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Malcolm X. Comparing to his 20 stories per year that used to do in the past, this year, he had cut his list down to just a few stories, including profiles of actor Morgan Freeman and NFL player Ricky Williams.

Jeff Fager, the executive producer of '"60 Minutes," called Wallace the ''heart and soul" of the broadcast. ''He's had such a powerful impact on all of us who work here, on how we conduct interviews and how we report stories, that there will always be a piece of Mike in everything we do," Fager said in a statement yesterday.