WASHINGTON — Senators demanded details yesterday from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about new orders putting the government’s warrantless surveilllance program under court review — and questioned why it took so long to do so.

Meanwhile, the presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said she had no objection to disclosing legal orders and opinions about the program that targets people linked to Al Qaeda, but the Bush administration would have to approve release of the information.

Mr. Gonzales and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said it was uncertain whether the court orders and details about the program will be disclosed.

Mr. Negroponte, testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, said there may be separation of powers issues involved in turning over information to Congress about the program. At issue is how the secret panel of judges will consider evidence when approving government requests to monitor suspected Al Qaeda agents’ phone calls and e-mails between America and other countries.

Until last week, the National Security Agency conducted the surveillance without a court warrant. But the Justice Department announced Wednesday that the FISA court, as it is known, began overseeing the program with a January 10 order.

Mr. Gonzales, testifying yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he may not be able to release details of the order.

“Are you saying that you might object to the court giving us a decision that you publicly announced?” the committee chairman, Senator Leahy, a Democrat of Vermont, asked. “Are we Alice in Wonderland here?”

Responding, Mr. Gonzales said, “There is going to be information about operational details about how we’re doing this that we want to keep confidential,” he said.

Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, questioned whether the orders give the FISA court a programmatic or blanket authority to approve all wiretapping requests. Although Justice Department attorneys have assured him wiretapping warrants would target individuals, Mr. Specter said, “We need to know more on the oversight process.”

He also needled Mr. Gonzales on why the spying program was only last week put under judicial review after the Bush administration acknowledged its existence, amid a public outcry of criticism, a little over a year ago.

“It is little hard to see why it took so long,” Mr. Specter said, noting that Republicans lost control of Congress elections last fall that were widely seen as a repudiation of administration policy. “The heavy criticism the president took on the program was very harmful in the political process, and for the reputation of the country,” Mr. Specter said.

Mr. Bush secretly authorized the program shortly after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and vigorously defended it as essential to national security after it was exposed in December 2005. He will not reauthorize the program once it expires, officials said.

The FISA court already has approved at least one warrant to conduct surveillance involving a person suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda or an associated terror group.

In a letter released at the Senate hearing, FISA Court Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, said she has no objection to giving lawmakers copies of orders and opinions relating to the secret panel’s oversight of the spy program.

“However, the court’s practice is to refer any requests for classified information to the Department of Justice. In this instance, the documents that are responsive to your request contain classified information and, therefore, I would ask you to discuss the matter with the attorney general or his representatives,” Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote in the January 17 letter.

If allowed, the court will, of course, cooperate with the agreement, she wrote.