Electronic-cigarette makers won a major reprieve on Friday when the Food and Drug Administration delayed regulations that could have removed many of their products from the market and opened the door to endorsing e-cigarettes as a means to get smokers to quit.

The F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, announced the delay as part of a broad plan to reduce tobacco deaths in the United States, which now number about 480,000 a year. That strategy will include steps to push makers of tobacco cigarettes to reduce the levels of nicotine in their products to make them less addictive, he said. Federal law gives the agency the authority to require lower levels of nicotine in tobacco products, F.D.A. officials said, and the announcement was a step toward that.

Dr. Gottlieb, in a conference call with reporters, said the F.D.A. would encourage e-cigarette companies to talk to the agency about gaining approval of their products as smoking cessation aids if that is their intent.

In a later interview with The New York Times, Dr. Gottlieb sounded notably more open to e-cigarettes than many other federal public health officials, who have opposed the devices as a gateway to nicotine addiction and eventually to the smoking of tobacco cigarettes. Although Dr. Gottlieb said he was concerned about children’s use of e-cigarettes and would consider regulating flavors designed to appeal to them, he also noted the potential benefits to addicted cigarette smokers of products capable of delivering nicotine without having to burn tobacco.