EU ministers play down uranium row

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Germany has attempted to calm diplomatic relations with the United States over the discovery of plutonium traces in depleted uranium (DU) shells.

Germany's Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping last week said it was the U.S.' "damned duty" to inform a partner about possible plutonium contamination during the Balkan wars.

But Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said on Monday that accusations that the U.S. had failed to alert allies to the fact that the DU shells it used in Kosovo contained minute traces of the radiotoxic substance "is not the point."

And European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels said they had not discussed the apparent disagreement between Germany and the U.S over so-called "Balkans sickness."

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The 15 ministers stressed that the DU issue was mainly a problem for NATO and the military, and needed to be studied in depth over the coming weeks.

Fears over the long-term health effects of DU-tipped missiles emerged when Italy said it was investigating whether illness including leukaemia among some of its troops who had served in the Balkans was related to the munitions.

Several other countries are now screening troops for signs of illness.

Fischer said at the first EU foreign ministerial conference of 2001 that Europe was seeking "full clarification of the facts" about DU munitions to allay public health fears.

But he denied that Scharping had criticised the U.S. for failing to let its NATO partners know in good time that plutonium could surface in the media debate.

NATO said last week that the plutonium traces were too low to be dangerous. But Scharping showed anger at what he said was a U.S. failure to inform and a lack of sensitivity to the public's fear of plutonium pollution of any sort. Spain has ordered its medical experts to investigate and Switzerland said it would call for a total ban on DU ammunition at the United Nations this year.

A World Health Organisation team is also due to scour DU blast sites in Kosovo for traces of plutonium.

Scharping is also to meet with scientists and physicians on Tuesday evening to determine whether more tests on a possible link between the effects of DU munitions on soldiers and cancer-related illnesses are needed.

But the U.S. claims its top radiation experts had told Scharping's deputy Walter Kolbow about the possibility of plutonium impurities -- but that the information had been lost in translation.

U.S. Army Medical Command Colonel Eric Daxon said: "We did not have interpreters and they were relying on their English and my German which nowhere near comes close to being able to communicate the things I was trying to communicate."

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman last Thursday confirmed plutonium was detected in DU a year ago and a nuclear plant, already plagued by problems including health safety and environmental violations, was shut for 90 days. Scientists say that inhaling one millionth of an ounce of plutonium can cause a fatal cancer.

Top medical officers from all 19 NATO armies met in Brussels last week to compare data and announced a day later there was no "Balkans syndrome" and no unseen health risk from DU.

Depleted uranium is prized as the best armour penetrator in anti-tank shells. About 40,000 rounds were fired in Bosnia and Kosovo, all by U.S. ground attack aircraft.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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