COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday dismissed as unwarranted a vote by a congressional committee to charge him with contempt of Congress after the Obama administration withheld documents related to a failed gun-running investigation.

"The action that the committee took yesterday was unwarranted, unnecessary and unprecedented," he said after meeting European Union officials in the Danish capital.

He said he remained optimistic the conflict with the Republican-controlled House of Representatives' Oversight and Government Reform Committee could still be resolved on the basis of the administration's proposal, without giving further details.