WASHINGTON The Clinton administration, responding to Republican criticism of its Northwest forest policy, defended its efforts Thursday to avoid lawsuits by consulting with environmentalists before logging some national forests.

Republicans are demanding an investigation of th

e

practice, saying it amounts to granting conservationists ''virtual veto power'' over the federal timber sales in eastern Oregon and eastern Washington, and may be illegal.

But Assistant Agriculture Secretary J

ames Lyons, who oversees the Forest Service, told a congressional panel Thursday there was nothing wrong with seeking advice from environmental groups before offering the trees for sale.

''We'd rather work with those who are concerned about the sales to avoid challenges,'' Lyons told the House Natural Resources subcommittee on national parks and forests.

''When I came into office, we were faced with a couple of options. We could move full-bore ahead and face th

e likelihood of litigation or we could consult with all reasonable parties. We elected the latter,'' he said.

A series of internal Forest Service memos obtained by The Associated Press shows the agency consulted directly with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a leading environmental group, on at least a dozen timber sales.

Kansas Rep. Pat Roberts, the top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee, and seven other GOP lawmakers urged the Agriculture Department's inspector general on Wednesday to launch an independent probe of the timber sales.

The memos, dated from Nov. 4 through Jan. 14, refer to some of the sales as ''released by NRDC,'' others as ''not released by NRDC'' and ''sales needing review by NRDC representative.''

Rep. Bob Smith, R-Ore., said in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy on Tuesday that the practice is ''immoral if not illegal.''

Lyons told the subcommittee that ''clearly there is a misunderstanding about the process and what we are trying to achieve.''

Faced with the threat of lawsuits like the ones that have stopped logging of spotted owl habitat in wester

n Oregon and Washington, Lyons said the department adopted a process to screen proposed timber sales for their impact on wildlife, rivers and old-growth forests.

''All interested parties were asked to comment,'' he said. ''These allegations that one party or another is getting preferential treatment is totally untrue.''