LISBON Seeing former comrades-in-arms die of leukemia and brain disease became especially worrying for Manuel Leite when he fell ill himself.

He has shed 10 kilos (22 lb) since serving in Kosovo with the Portuguese Army, suffers from constant headaches and fatigue, and fears that he may be suffering from exposure to debris from spent depleted uranium-tipped munitions.

"I hope that this is just a false alarm, that the symptoms are of a virus that is curable," Leite, 21, told Reuters on Saturday.

Portugal has started medical testing of civilian personnel and troops who were stationed in the Balkans and is also sending a team of scientists to Kosovo to test uranium levels in areas where its soldiers are still based.

Fears of a so-called "Balkan Syndrome" have surged, with reports of cancer amongst soldiers from several European countries that sent troops to Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, where NATO used munitions containing depleted uranium.

Leite said he was in Kosovo with Rui Miguel Apalhao, who told Portuguese television station TVI on Friday that he had been diagnosed with leukemia, the same disease that killed six former Italian peacekeepers.

He also served in the same squad as Hugo Paulino, who died in March last year from a type of encephalitis -- or inflammation of the brain -- which his father has since maintained was brought on by exposure to depleted uranium.

Portugal's armed forces say there was no connection between Paulino's death and his serving in Kosovo.

"I am worried, but only about being bed-ridden," Leite said in the northern city of Oporto.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres said on Friday he wanted a full investigation into the potential hazards of depleted uranium, rather than taking NATO assurances of safety on trust.

"The moment has come for us to stop trusting entirely in others, as we had been doing quite legitimately up to now," news agency Lusa quoted Guterres as saying.

U.S. fighter aircraft fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition against Serbian targets during NATO's 1999 campaign to eject the Yugoslav Army from Kosovo. Another 10,000 rounds were fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-5.

But NATO dismisses any link to illnesses, saying that the threat from the depleted uranium posed a "negligible hazard".

(Reuter)