RUSK, Texas - Texas officials can urge a convicted child molester to undergo castration but can't make the surgical procedure a requirement for his getting out of prison, the parole board's chairman said yesterday.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will make sure Larry Don McQuay knows he is free to get castrated as he wishes, Board Chairman Victor Rodriguez said. He added that people have come forward offering to pay for the procedure and state money would not be used.

''Money does not seem to be a problem,'' Rodriguez said. ''We've got people lining up that would either volunteer services or help pay for them if he wants to pursue this, and we encourage him to.''

''I'm glad they are not going to stand in the way,'' said McQuay, who claims to have molested more than 240 times. ''It's something I've been waiting for from the state.''

McQuay, awaiting his release from the Skyview psychiatric prison unit near Rusk, repeatedly has sought castration, saying it would help him avoid a repeat of his past crimes.

Rodriguez said despite Attorney General Dan Morales' opinion that the state may allow McQuay to be castrated, the most the state can do is urge him to do so. ''But our lawyers are telling us on this that to tie that as a condition of parole release is simply not possible,'' he said.

Morales' office researched the castration question at the request of the board, which is formulating the terms of the 32-year-old pedophile's imminent mandatory release.

The state's plan for releasing McQuay will be announced Monday, the same day he's expected to leave prison. Rodriguez said McQuay likely will be assigned to serve out the rest of his term at a San Antonio transition facility.

Morales said before allowing the castration, the parole board must determine McQuay is competent to request and consent to the procedure and that he poses a continuing threat to society.

McQuay also must request castration in writing and release the state from all liability, Morales said.

McQuay originally was scheduled for release Tuesday to a Houston halfway house, but that was scuttled after a victims' rights group criticized the move.

He had written letters to the group, saying he begged the state to castrate him and promising he will molest again once he's released, killing his young victims this time so they won't identify him.

McQuay is serving time for a 1989 attack on a boy.