WASHINGTON — A team of American doctors have concluded that at least 302 Panamanian civilians were apparently killed in the U.S invasion of Panama--far more than the Pentagon has estimated--and that Panamanian military casualties may have been vastly overestimated.

The findings, issued Wednesday in a report by the independent Physicians for Human Rights, suggest that the Dec. 20 invasion inflicted a far greater share of suffering on noncombatants than U.S. officials had estimated.

The doctors said they have received reliable reports of more than 100 civilian deaths that appeared not to have been included in the announced U.S. total of 202. At the same time, they disclosed that officials have been able to confirm only 50 of the 314 military deaths previously announced.

The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the findings, but an official said that the U.S. Southern Command in Panama had already concluded that its early estimates of Panamanian military deaths were probably too high.

If the new medical survey has uncovered a more accurate total, a State Department official said, "we're not going to quibble." The official called the earlier U.S. account a "good-faith effort."

In another finding, the team of doctors concluded that the number of Panamanians injured during the invasion exceeded the official U.S. estimate.

While the United States put the figure at 1,508, the physicians' team reported that at least 3,000 Panamanians sought hospital care for injuries sustained during the first week after the invasion.

The indication that civilian deaths may greatly have exceeded those among the military cast new doubt on the Bush Administration contention that the victory for democracy in Panama was won at minimal cost to the nation's population.

Twenty-three American soldiers died in the invasion and 324 were wounded.

The investigative team concluded that the primary cause of death among civilians was "the official U.S. policy of using overwhelming firepower in residential areas to protect American lives," said Ralph Wise, a Harvard Medical School professor who was part of the group.

The respected physician group, which specializes in assessing the medical consequences of armed conflict, said it found no indication that the United States sought to obscure the true casualty figures.

It also said it found no evidence that the Panamanian death toll numbered in the thousands, as claimed by some private citizens in the wake of the invasion.