  A study of 12 ultracompact HII regions was conducted to probe the physical
conditions and kinematics in the inner envelopes of the molecular clumps
harboring them. The APEX telescope was used to observe the sources in the CO
(4-3) and 13CO (8-7) lines. Line intensities were modeled with the RATRAN
radiative transfer code using power laws for the density and temperature to
describe the physical structure of the clumps. All sources were detected in
both lines. The optically thick CO (4-3) line shows predominantly blue skewed
profiles reminiscent of infall. Line intensities can be reproduced well using
the physical structure of the clumps taken from the literature. The optically
thick line profiles show that CO is a sensitive tracer of ongoing infall in the
outer envelopes of clumps harboring ultracompact HII regions and hot molecular
cores.
