A House panel postponed a vote Wednesday on whether to cite Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey for contempt for failing to produce FBI reports of an interview of Vice President Dick Cheney regarding the disclosure of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s covert status.

Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the panel would put off the vote after receiving word that President Bush had asserted executive privilege over the subpoenaed documents at the recommendation of Mukasey.

Waxman said he had “grave reservations about the validity of the president’s action” but wanted to give committee members time to consider it.

Keith B. Nelson, the principal deputy assistant attorney general, notified the committee of the executive privilege claim in a letter Wednesday. He enclosed a July 15 letter from Mukasey to Bush justifying the claim.

“In my view, such a production would chill deliberations among future White House officials and impede future Department of Justice criminal investigations involving official White House conduct,” Mukasey wrote.

The Justice Department said it would continue to provide other interview reports requested by the committee “if the committee refrains from citing the attorney general for contempt.”

Waxman issued a subpoena last month directing Mukasey to provide notes of FBI interviews with Cheney and Bush but later limited the request to Cheney. The Justice Department had indicated earlier that it considered the materials subject to executive privilege.