  Aims: The chemistry, distribution and mass of the gas in the transitional
disk around the 5 Myr old B9.5 V star HD 141569A are constrained.
  Methods: A quasi 2-dimensional (2D) chemistry code for photon dominated
regions (PDR) is used to calculate the chemistry and gas temperatures in the
disk. The calculations are performed for several gas distributions, PAH
abundances and values of the total gas mass. The resulting CO J=2-1 and J=3-2
emission lines are computed with a 2D radiative transfer code and are compared
to observations.
  Results: The CO abundance is very sensitive to the total disk mass because
the disk is in a regime where self-shielding just sets in. The observed CO
emission lines are best fit by a power-law gas distribution of 80 M_earth
starting at 80 AU from the central star, indicating that there is some gas in
the inner hole. Predictions are made for intensities of atomic fine-structure
lines. [C I], which is the dominant form of carbon in large parts of the disk,
is found to be a good alternative tracer of the gas mass.
