Another legal effort to force state officials to produce a copy of President-elect Barack Obama's birth certificate has been filed, this time in federal court.

Similar legal actions have been filed here and in several other states, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Georgia and Mississippi.

Circuit Judge Bert Ayabe last month dismissed the suit filed in state court here, upholding arguments from Gov. Linda Lingle's administration that birth records are confidential under state law.

The new challenge is an outgrowth of a legal suit filed in Mississippi, which questioned whether Obama is a "natural born citizen" of the U.S.

Plaintiffs in that suit subpoenaed a copy of the birth certificate Nov. 26 from the Hawai'i Health Department. The plaintiffs include conservative political activist and failed presidential candidate Alan Keyes, who lost to Obama in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois.

Deputy Attorney General Jill Nagamine wrote Dec. 1 to the local attorney handling the case, James Hochberg, stating that Hawai'i law prohibits disclosure of the record.

"Vital statistics records, such as birth certificates, are protected by strict confidentiality requirements under Hawai'i state law," Nagamine wrote.

"The record could be disclosed to a person whose right to inspect or obtain a copy of the record is established by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction," the letter continued.

"This requires more than a subpoena prepared and issued by counsel of record," Nagamine wrote.

The state's health director, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, issued a statement in late October saying that she and the registrar of vital statistics had inspected Obama's Hawai'i birth certificate and found it to be valid.

During the presidential campaign, the Obama camp posted a copy of his Honolulu birth certificate on its Web site. That copy indicates he was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961.