WASHINGTON - The Democratic Party has asked a judge to order the disclosure of 68 pages of White House e-mails that the Bush administration is trying to keep secret.

The Democratic National Committee, suing the Justice Department over the firing of U.S. attorneys, seeks messages by White House staffers who performed political duties on Republican National Committee accounts.

The Democratic Party is trying to determine the extent to which such accounts were used in the U.S. attorneys controversy.

Justice Department officials consulted with the White House on the firings of at least nine federal prosecutors, triggering a furor over a hiring process that favored Republican loyalists.

The administration is withholding the e-mails from the DNC, claiming that they are exempt from public disclosure.

Messages sent over the RNC accounts were not treated as being subject to federal laws governing official records, the Democratic Party argued in papers filed Feb. 14 with U.S. District Judge Hon. Ellen Huvelle.