BOISE, Idaho -- Idaho Attorney General Al Lance and other parties to the federal roadless lawsuit have asked the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a previous decision that bans logging and road construction on a third of national forest lands.

The petition asks the full 11-member court to rehear the case, which was adjudicated on Dec. 12 by a three-member panel of judges from that court.

In a 2-1 split decision, the panel lifted a lower court's temporary suspension of the Clinton-era U.S. Forest Service rules, which prohibit road building or other development in roadless parcels of 5,000 acres or more.

"This is yet another example of judicial activism by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals," Lance said Dec. 23 in a prepared statement.

The original rule was to take effect in May 2001, but was stopped by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge in response to a lawsuit filed by the state of Idaho, the Kootenai Indian tribe of Idaho and logging interests.

It is still unclear whether the Bush administration will actually activate the roadless rule plan.

-- The Associated Press