WASHINGTON (AP) - A government panel is recommending routine screening of sexually active women for chlamydia.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force urged Tuesday that doctors screen all sexually active women aged 25 and younger, as well as older women at risk for chlamydia, as part of their regular health-care visits.

With an estimated 3 million new cases each year, chlamydia is the most common bacterial, sexually transmitted disease in the United States.

Most women have no symptoms when initially infected, but if not treated they can develop pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and other serious health problems.

The panel said that, despite the spread of chlamydia, many women are not being screened.

In a survey of 546 doctors reported in the March 2001 Journal of Adolescent Health, only 32 percent said they would screen an asymptomatic, sexually active teen-age girl for chlamydia as part of a routine gynecological examination.

The panel of independent experts in prevention and primary care concluded, ``There is good scientific evidence that routine screening and treatment could reduce serious consequences of chlamydia in women.''

The group also:

- Dropped its upper age limit for regular screening for high blood cholesterol and other lipid abnormalities that can lead to coronary heart disease. A 1996 recommendation had set the upper age for this screening at 65.

- Issued a new recommendation calling for the screening of younger adults for lipid abnormalities beginning at age 20 if they have risk factors for coronary heart disease such as diabetes, family history of heart disease, tobacco use or high blood pressure.

- Said that, despite research showing that pregnant women with bacterial vaginosis have a higher risk of pre-term delivery, evidence does not merit regular screening to reduce the incidence of pre-term delivery.

- Reported there is still insufficient scientific evidence to determine whether regular total-body skin examination for skin cancer is effective in reducing illness and death.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.