Washington ? Relatives of people who perished in the Sept. 11 attacks say a federal commission accepted too many conditions in striking a deal with the White House over access to secret intelligence documents.

The Family Steering Committee, a group of victims’ relatives who are monitoring the work of the independent commission, criticized the agreement announced late Wednesday. Under the deal, only some of the 10 commissioners will be allowed to examine classified intelligence documents, and their notes will be subject to White House review.

“All 10 commissioners should have full, unfettered and unrestricted access to all evidence,” the group said in a statement Thursday. It urged the public release of “the full, official, and final written agreement.”

Neither the commission nor the White House disclosed the terms of the agreement, although sources familiar with the commission’s work described some of its provisions.

“We really want to know the details here,” said Lorie Van Auken of New Jersey, whose husband, Kenneth, was killed at the World Trade Center. “I don’t understand what’s so secret about that. I mean, this is not a game.”

A commission spokesman, Al Felzenberg, said there was no need to broadcast the fine print. “The importance of the agreement is access to the documents,” Felzenberg said.

The commission’s chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, defended the agreement.

“The most important fact to me is that there is not going to be any document not seen by a member of the commission, and those documents will be used to inform our report,” Kean said.

Two commissioners, former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer and former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, criticized the deal after it was announced, saying it places unwarranted restrictions on the panel’s work. The commission discussed issuing a subpoena to the White House, although that could have led to a legal battle had the Bush administration claimed executive privilege.