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Congressional researchers recommended yesterday that Congress ask the Pentagon to triple the number of U.S. troops presumed to be exposed to chemical fallout from the demolition of an Iraqi weapons depot in March 1991 to 350,000, or roughly half of U.S. forces that served in the Persian Gulf War.

The recommendation by the General Accounting Office, Congress's audit arm, came after analysts concluded that the Defense Department's narrower estimates were based on flawed science. The analysts said the military arbitrarily underestimated the height of plumes produced by demolition of a sarin gas stockpile at Khamisiyah, lacked accurate data about the weather and relied on simulations in a Utah desert that did not correlate to conditions in Iraq.

The GAO report was prepared for the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations and for Sen. Robert C. Byrd Jr. (D-W.Va.). The panel heard testimony yesterday about the science of toxic plume modeling.

Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said he believed the recommendation would be taken up by an advisory task force scheduled to meet July 16.

The Pentagon had not seen the report and had no immediate comment, said Anna Johnson-Winegar, deputy assistant secretary of defense for chemical and biological defense.

The Pentagon has increased estimates before of the number of soldiers "presumed exposed" from Khamisiyah from zero to 400 in 1996 and 100,000 in 1997.