WASHINGTON -- Gulf War illness is a real medical condition that has affected at least 175,000 combat veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf war, according to a report released yesterday.

But federal research into the causes behind the mysterious malady has "not been effective," and the report by the congressionally mandated panel suggested that politics or financial concerns might have played a role.

"There is also a common perception that federal policymakers have not vigorously pursued key research in this area, and that federal agencies have disincentives -- whether political or fiscal -- for providing definitive answers to Gulf War health questions," the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illness said.

The report compared the foot-dragging and denials to the treatment of earlier troops who claimed that they had been dangerously exposed to Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides in Vietnam and to radiation during World War II. In both cases, the claims turned out to be true.

Committee members said troops were exposed to a "toxic soup" of chemicals. But they laid the blame for Gulf War illness primarily on two causes: pesticides sprayed on the troops during deployment and pyridostigmine bromide, an anti-nerve agent. The small white pills hadn't been approved for nerve agent protection at the time, but the Food and Drug Administration had given the military a temporary waiver for their use to protect troops in case they were exposed to nerve gas.

The committee met yesterday at Department of Veterans Affairs headquarters, two blocks from the White House. Thanking the members for their work, the VA secretary, Dr. James Peake, a former Army surgeon general, said, "I personally neither denied nor trivialized the issues of our veterans, having been among them myself. It's not something we are going to wash away."

The Veterans Affairs Department didn't respond to the committee's criticism, but said Dr. Peake had directed the agency "to review and respond to the committee's recommendations in the near future."

The report, six years in the making, should be a boon to Gulf War veterans who for years have been trying to persuade the VA to recognize their medical problems. Often too ill to work, many have been unable to get medical disability payments from the VA because they couldn't prove that their ailments were real and related to their military service.

Originally called Gulf War syndrome, the ailment has become an umbrella for a variety of unexplained illness, including chronic headaches, dizziness, memory loss, fatigue, skin rashes, joint and muscle pain, and respiratory problems, as well as more serious neurological conditions and brain cancer.

Federal officials and some scientists have said stress and psychiatric problems were the cause. Other scientists and veterans argued for other causes.

The committee said it had studied numerous reports about Gulf War illness from this country and overseas and concluded that it was "a real condition with real causes and serious consequences."

A quarter to a third of the 700,000 troops who served in the war suffer from Gulf War illness. Fewer than 10 percent have recovered or show improvement, the report says.