WASHINGTON — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday he will turn over secret documents detailing the government’s domestic spying program, ending a two-week standoff with the Senate Judiciary Committee over surveillance targeting terrorist suspects.

“It’s never been the case where we said we would never provide access,” Gonzales told reporters.

“We obviously would be concerned about the public disclosure that may jeopardize the national security of our country,” he said. “But we’re working with the Congress to provide the information that it needs.”

The documents held by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — including investigators’ applications for permission to spy and judges’ orders — will be given to some lawmakers as early as Wednesday.

Gonzales said the documents would not be released publicly. “We’re talking about highly classified documents about highly classified activities of the United States government,” the attorney general said.

The records will be given to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the panel’s top Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who two weeks ago lambasted Gonzales for refusing to turn over documents that even the FISA Court’s presiding judge had no objection to releasing. At the time, Gonzales said it was unclear whether the court orders could be released without exposing sensitive security information.

The documents also will be available to lawmakers and staffers on the House and Senate intelligence committees. These people already were cleared to receive details about the controversial spy program.

Leahy said he welcomed the Bush administration decision to release the documents, which he said he would review to decide “what further oversight or legislative action is necessary.” Specter stopped short of calling for them to be publicly released, but said “there ought to be the maximum disclosure to the public, consistent with national security procedures.”

“They will not be made public until I’ve had a chance to see them,” Specter said.