Clinton Reviews Plans Amid Bad News on Deficit : Agenda: New economic team discusses whether his campaign pledges, including one to halve the budget shortfall in four years, are doable.

President-elect Bill Clinton and his top economic advisers gathered Thursday in a daylong session dominated by concern over whether it still will be possible to enact his promised economic agenda in light of staggering new deficit estimates.

The gathering, the first formal meeting of Clinton’s economic team since it was named last month, came a day after the Bush Administration increased its projections of the magnitude of the federal deficit by tens of billions of dollars, to $327 billion this year.

In view of the new figures, Clinton and his advisers were said to be reviewing whether it remains possible to honor a campaign pledge to halve the budget shortfall over the next four years.

At a photo session before the meeting, Clinton ignored a question about whether he remains committed to that plan. He smiled and sipped coffee, while Vice President-elect Al Gore admonished a small group of reporters: “This is not a press conference.”

While Clinton’s chief spokesman rejected the suggestion that the President-elect might already have abandoned the vow, he described the 50% deficit cut as a goal rather than a promise. He also acknowledged that Clinton’s plans to increase investment in education and other key programs now face an unexpected obstacle.

“We are not backing away from any pledges,” transition communications director George Stephanopoulos said. “It’s just--all I am pointing out is that the deficit is much larger than anybody thought 48 hours ago.”

Clinton has said in the past that he would be inclined to reduce spending proposals rather than back off his deficit-cutting goals if the debt proved larger than he had envisioned. But some aides suggested Thursday that the sheer magnitude of the new debt estimates might cause him to reconsider that approach.

It was unclear exactly what advice Clinton heard from his advisers during their meeting in the governor’s mansion here. The President-elect and members of his economic team, including Treasury Secretary-designate Lloyd Bentsen and Budget Director-designate Leon E. Panetta, declined to make substantive comments before and after the session.

But it was plain that the last-minute revelation of the magnitude of the challenge had left aides somewhat piqued. Reminded that Richard G. Darman, outgoing director of the Office of Management and Budget, had used the unveiling to suggest that Clinton’s economic plan could not add up, the President-elect shot back with sarcasm: “I think Mr. Darman has proven himself an expert at math not adding up over the years.”

Without offering specifics, some transition advisers said that options being given more consideration because of the higher deficit projections include an increase in the federal gasoline tax and a sharp narrowing of a promised middle-class tax cut.

Because planning has been further complicated by uncertainties about the health of the economy, the advisers suggested that the Clinton team is now likely to proceed with a new caution, despite a promise that the plan would be completed immediately after Inauguration Day.

Stephanopoulos said Thursday that he does not know when the team will be able to produce its final plan. “Clearly, what we learned yesterday is that the deficit is far bigger than anybody thought,” he added.

In another sign that the new Administration may be inclined to tread carefully, Clinton took time out Thursday in advance of his scheduled meeting today with Mexico’s president to assure the leader of Canada that the session should not be seen as a slight.

The three nations are parties to the unratified North American Free Trade Agreement, making any separate discussions of the accord potentially sensitive. But Clinton is said to have told Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney that his meeting with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari would not address the trade agreement in any formal way.

According to Stephanopoulos, the President-elect also promised Mulroney that he would meet with him soon after the inauguration in a session that for Clinton would be “his first meeting with a foreign leader as President.”

No date has been set for the session, the spokesman said.