OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire on Wednesday called for broader state powers to limit development in national forests, joining three other Western states in a challenge of the Bush administration's forest protections.

In a petition to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Gregoire asked that states be allowed to adopt former President Clinton's so-called roadless rule, which banned development on 58 million acres of national forests.

That 2001 policy protected more than 2 million acres of national forest in Washington, but Bush administration revisions could allow new roads and commercial logging on about 716,000 acres, Gregoire said.

"Washingtonians overwhelmingly want these lands protected, and I intend to do everything within the state's power to see that they are," she said in a statement.

The Agriculture Department, which is the parent agency of the U.S. Forest Service, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The Clinton administration rule was based on the idea that roadless areas, which had escaped development due mostly to their remote and rugged terrain, were more valuable for clean water and wildlife habitat than timber.

After a federal court declared the rule illegal, the Bush administration created a new one giving governors the option of proposing whether roadless areas should be developed. The final decisions were left to federal officials.

In August, Oregon, California and New Mexico filed a federal lawsuit against the Forest Service repeal of the roadless rule. Environmental groups have filed a similar lawsuit and are circulating a petition calling for reinstatement of the 2001 policy.

Gregoire is mulling a possible Washington state lawsuit against the Bush roadless rules, but she also may decide to join the existing three-state suit, environmental policy adviser Elliot Marks said.

"She has no deadline for the state filing its own lawsuit other than a six-year statute of limitations," but a decision about joining the existing multistate suit should be made by December, Marks said.

Gregoire's petition mirrors one submitted last month by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a fellow Democrat. Federal officials said they would consider Kulongoski's request if he withdrew from a three-state lawsuit against the Bush roadless policy.

Washington state officials expect the federal government to reject Gregoire's petition, but see it as a first step in challenging the roadless rules, Marks said.