The preliminary figure - double the earlier number reported - was released by ACS Commissioner William Bell yesterday as his office began a review of its files to determine the extent of the experimentation, said City Councilman Bill DiBlasio.

AIDS and children's advocates have claimed that some of the kids placed by Manhattan's Incarnation Children's Center, a Catholic-run foster-care agency, were given dangerously high doses of experimental AIDS drugs. "There is no evidence to suggest that any of these children were harmed as a result of their participation in clinical trials," said MacLean Guthrie, an ACS spokeswoman.