The administration disavowed the memorandum last year after its disclosure led to charges that it helped open the door to abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and elsewhere.

"The new administration may not disavow the settlement because it disagrees with it," the statement said.

The administration has since disavowed the memorandum, but Mr. Reid said he had problems "with his being the person who was the legal adviser to the president that signed off on these torture memos."

The administration has now disavowed that opinion in favor of a broader definition of torture, but Democrats said both legal interpretations showed Mr. Gonzales to be too much of a loyalist to Mr. Bush to be an independent attorney general because of his refusal to question policies later deemed excessive.

The administration disavowed that classified legal opinion in the summer of 2004, after it was publicly disclosed.

It was never ratified in China, and in France Jules Ferry's incoming administration disavowed the agreement in March 1883 and recalled Bourée.

The administration has been disavowing the recommendation ever since it became public.

The administration disavowed that opinion last summer after the classified legal opinion was publicly disclosed.

The administration later disavowed that argument.