WASHINGTON - Caught between his longtime ties to environmentalists and the political clout of farmers, Vice President Al Gore sided with agriculture and the chemical industry by slowing a government review of pesticides.

The decision created a new advisory committee giving farmers and companies greater input into the pesticide review. At its first meeting this week, Deputy Agriculture Secretary Rich Rominger acknowledged that some of a class of 39 key pesticides might be banned but not at great cost to farmers.

"Some uses will change or be eliminated," Rominger said. "Environmental protection and economic growth must go hand in hand."

The vice president's move came last month after two Democratic congressmen warned Gore that the possible loss of widely used pesticides was causing an uproar in key political states like Iowa, Texas, Florida and California.

"There were some in the Environmental Protection Agency that appeared to be running amok with their decisions on various chemicals," said Rep. Charles Stenholm of Texas, senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee.

In late March, Stenholm and Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark., met with Gore to describe a brewing revolt among farm and agribusiness organizations over the future of a class of pesticides known as organophosphates.

These chemicals, sold under brand names including Dursban and Lorsban, have been used for decades on fruit, vegetables and other crops to kill insects.

They were targeted first under a 1996 law aimed at updating the health effects of pesticides on people. Some farmers feared the pesticides could be banned as early as mid-May, right during planting time.

On April 8, Gore issued an unusual memo directing EPA to work with the Agriculture Department on the review, keeping in mind several principles, including use of sound science, guaranteeing farmers a transition period into alternatives if a chemical is banned and greater input from affected constituencies.

The memo resulted in creation of a 50-member advisory panel of representatives of farm groups, the chemical industry and environmentalists that will meet four times this summer.

One member, Ken Cook of the Environmental Working Group, an organization that studies farm issues, said the Gore memo was the result of industry pressure that began when preliminary EPA decisions on the pesticides appeared likely to result in their eventual ban.

The new law requires that the health effects of similar chemicals in food be looked at cumulatively, instead of one by one, and that children be given special consideration.

There was "paranoia" among chemical industry and agriculture groups after a series of EPA leaks indicated the agency was adopting a strict approach to the organophosphates, said Jay Vroom of the American Crop Protection Association, a pesticide industry group, also a panel member.

EPA Deputy Administrator Fred Hansen said there never were plans to cancel any pesticide uses this spring.