WASHINGTON--The U.S. government says the Soviet Union is engaging in a campaign intended to plant the idea that AIDS was created in a biological warfare experiment at Fort Detrick in Maryland.

The Pentagon believes the Soviets have succeeded in keeping their allegations alive because Fort Detrick--until 1969--was the Army's biological warfare development center, and today is the site for some AIDS-related research.

"The facts have been distorted to support the false charge," the Pentagon stated in a recent background report on the affair. The State Department has also protested against the Soviet accounts.

First carried in October 1985 by the Soviet Weekly "Literaturnaya Gazeta," the Soviet claim was immediately denied by the State Department and dismissed as propaganda.

Over the past 17 months, however, the Russians have mounted what the Pentagon calls "a continuing disinformation campaign," embellishing the story while citing alleged scientific experts to lend weight to the charges.