By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) - A Democratic committee chairman in the U.S. House of Representatives threatened on Friday to subpoena Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice if she refuses to testify voluntarily about claims made in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Rep. Henry Waxman of California said his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee would vote on Wednesday whether to subpoena Rice to discuss administration warnings, since refuted, that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger for nuclear arms.

Waxman said his panel also would vote on whether to compel testimony from former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card about the 2003 leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's status as a covert CIA analyst.

Testifying before Waxman's committee last month, Plame accused the administration of blowing her cover to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had accused the administration of twisting intelligence.

In justifying the case to go to war, President George W. Bush said Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Niger for a nuclear weapons program, a claim that later proved to be false. Rice was then his national security adviser.

Since Democrats took control of Congress in January, Waxman has chaired dozens of oversight hearings about how the administration does business, drawing the ire of many Republicans.

"It seems for Chairman Waxman every season is fishing season," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in response to the latest threat.

Fratto said White House Counsel Fred Fielding responded to requests for testimony before and there has not been a change.

"Current and former senior White House officials have historically not been available to Congress to testify, or to be interviewed, about their activities in serving the president," Fratto said.

But Democrats have threatened to go to court, if necessary, to force testimony from past or present White House staffers.

Waxman has pushed Rice to answer a series of questions about the Niger matter, which she argues have already been addressed and he says remain unclear.

In a letter to Rice, Waxman wrote that his panel has questions about "your personal knowledge of, your personal role in, and your personal statements about the claim."

Waxman said his panel will also vote next week whether to issue subpoenas in two other investigations, one to the Republican Party regarding missing White House e-mails.

The other is for documents involving the White House's relationship with MZM, Inc., a contractor snared in a bribery scandal that sent former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California to prison last year. (Additional reporting by Sue Pleming and Caren Bohan)

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