WASHINGTON (AP) - The House today defeated a bill to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness.

Majority Democrats agreed to amend the bill to clarify that it wouldn't impose new restrictions on hunting, fishing or trapping on federal land. The amendment was sought by the National Rifle Association.

A majority of House members supported the bill, but the measure was defeated because it did not receive the needed two-thirds votes. The vote was 282-144 in favor - two votes short of approval.

House debate on the bill turned contentious, as Republicans complained that the measure - one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in 25 years - would cost up to $10 billion and block oil and gas development on millions of acres of federal property.

The defeated measure would have conferred the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range to Oregon's Mount Hood, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

Land in Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and Zion National Park in Utah also would have won designation as wilderness, and more than 1,000 miles of rivers in nearly a dozen states would have gained protections.

The bill also would let Alaska construct the road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge as part of a land swap that would give the state a seven-mile easement through the refuge. In exchange, the state was expected to transfer more than 1,000 acres to the federal government, much of it designated as wilderness.

On the Net:

The bill is S. 22. Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/