NATO chief: We will use uranium again

ATHENS, Greece -- NATO will use depleted uranium (DU) shells in the future if its soldiers are at risk, a high-ranking NATO official has said.

NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Joseph Ralston said on Wednesday it would be "irresponsible" not to fire DU-tipped weapons if his soldiers came under attack.

Some NATO countries fear a link between the DU munitions fired during the Kosovo crisis in 1999 and subsequent cases of cancer-related illnesses among their soldiers, dubbed "Balkans syndrome."

Ralston was speaking as NATO prepared for a briefing on a DU study by its ad hoc committee.

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It also coincides with a four-member team of experts from the World Health Organisation visiting Kosovo to collect information on the possible exposure of civilians to DU and other environmental pollutants.

Erik Schouten, head of the WHO office in Kosovo said: "This mission is here to look at the civilian population in Kosovo and the internationals working here" -- and not with the military personnel in the region.

NATO's Ralston is in Greece on a two-day visit to discuss the use of DU weapons, and the general Kosovo situation, with defence officials and the Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou.

After the meeting he said: "I have a responsibility to protect the soldiers in Kosovo.

"In the unlikely event that KFOR soldiers or citizens were attacked tonight by a tank I would be irresponsible not to use depleted uranium."

NATO has repeatedly said armour-piercing DU bullets were not related to leukaemia or other health problems.

A NATO chief U.S. Admiral James Ellis said: "Research over decades, in many nations, has failed to establish such a linkage."

But he confirmed that "very, very small trace amounts" of plutonium had been identified in some depleted uranium rounds -- "so small as to add nothing to the danger or the risk associated with that."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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NATO
Depleted Uranium - the Silver Bullet
European Union
Greek Government

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