UPDATE 1-U.S. judge rejects GM bondholder committee request

* U.S. Judge denies request for another official committee

* Objecting bondholders to continue fight -- lawyer

By Emily Chasan

NEW YORK, June 23 (Reuters) - A U.S. bankruptcy judge has denied a request from a small group of General Motors Corp GMGMQ.PK bondholders to become an "official committee" in the bankruptcy case.

The group, which calls itself the "Unofficial Committee of Family & Dissident GM Bondholders" and says it represents the interests of some 2,000 individual GM bondholders with about $500 million of GM debt, argued its members were unable to participate in GM's bankruptcy process and were not being represented adequately by GM's official committee of unsecured creditors.

Citing more than a dozen different court decisions, U.S. bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber rejected the group's request on Tuesday saying he believed the group's interests were adequately represented by GM's 15-member official unsecured creditors' committee, which is unusually large for such a committee.

Judge Gerber also said the unofficial committee would be free to raise objections at GM's sale hearing next week, but the group's arguments did not rise to the "exceptional" circumstance that would merit the appointment of another official committee.

In bankruptcy cases, official committees can have their fees paid for by the bankrupt company rather than having to come up with the money themselves.

The group's lawyer, Michael Richman, of the Patton Boggs law firm, argued that an official committee was necessary because his clients -- many of them retirees and individual families -- had limited means and that the bondholders were a large disparate group.