BRASILIA, May 3 (Reuters) - Protesters accused the Brazilian government of bending environmental laws to force through big industrial projects while President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva traveled to a mining region to inaugurate a new hydropower plant on Thursday.

More than 100 environmental protection workers showed up at Congress carrying signs, banging on doors and asking legislators to reject a presidential order to strip their agency, Ibama, of its conservation responsibilities.

Lula angered workers and environmentalists last week when he decided to hand conservation to a new agency so Ibama could focus strictly on supervising and granting permits to industrial projects.

Several officials have criticized Ibama for being too slow to grant permits. Energy Minister Silas Rondeau recently said two hydropower dams on the Amazon basin's Madeira River must be licensed by May or else he will pursue nuclear or fossil fuel plants.

"Some sectors of the government want development at any cost, regardless of the damage to the environment," said Jonas Corea, president of Ibama's national workers association.

Official criticism of Ibama has grown louder since January, when Lula announced a plan to attract billions in investment to a list of big infrastructure projects, many in sensitive areas like the Amazon rain forest.

Brazil desperately needs improved infrastructure to grow. Its current growth rate, about 4 percent a year, is not strong enough to lift millions out of poverty.

But the move to dismantle Ibama and promote certain controversial projects like the Rio Madeira dams has raised red flags for conservationists.

"The government is trying to use its iron hand to get these projects through as the government has done since the times of military dictatorship," said Glenn Switkes, Latin America program director for the International Rivers Network.

Switkes was referring to a military government that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Lula gained famed as a labor leader protesting military repression.

On Thursday Environment Minister Marina Silva named interim directors to key departments within Ibama and the new Chico Mendes Institute, which will assume Ibama's conservation work.

So far government officials have been unable to agree on who will take charge permanently, although several names have been floated.

Silva did not name an interim director for environmental licensing, leaving the post empty for now.

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