TEHRAN According to the available data, several of the weapons deployed by the United States in the Balkans contained depleted uranium (DU), the Central News Bureau (CNB) reported.

The NATO and European countries have now come under heavy pressure for the deployment of such weapons and are held accountable for one of the most serious crises in the past decade. Thus, they are currently trying to prove that there is no connection between a special disease known as the Balkans Syndrome afflicting some NATO troops and the weapons deployed in this region.

The U.S. first deployed the weapons of mass destruction during World War II against the Japanese residents of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Later, it deployed chemical weapons against the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. Also, in the Persian Gulf War that was staged to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, the U.S.-led Allied forces deployed such weapons.

The deployment of the DU weapons in the Balkans shows that U.S.-led NATO would do anything to achieve its goals, and this poses a serious threat to the international community.

The U.S. has admitted that it deployed DU weapons for several times in the Balkans. Consequently, some European countries whose soldiers have died as a result of such weapons have come under heavy pressure from their nations.

The U.S., despite its human rights claims, has shown in practice that it has no respect at all for human rights and values and does not comply with any internationally recognized rules and regulations banning the deployment of the weapons of mass destruction when its interests are at stake.

Meanwhile, members of the European Parliament will call on Wednesday for the suspension of the use of depleted uranium munitions while an independent study examines their potential health risks.

The motion, supported by the assembly's main political groups, follows a denial by NATO that there is any evidence to support a link between depleted uranium (DU) and cancer among soldiers that have served in Kosovo and Bosnia.

Former NATO secretary general Javier Solana was due to deliver a speech to the Strasbourg-based Parliament following two weeks of mounting controversy over depleted uranium and the so-called "Balkans Syndrome", Reuters reported.

The motion, which is nonbinding on EU governments, "calls on member states that are also NATO members to propose that a moratorium be placed on the use of depleted uranium munitions".

It also urges EU governments to hold a clear and transparent debate as part of action to establish a new European security and defense policy and says there should be an independent working party to examine the medical evidence.

EU officials have said the motion has a good chance of passing, although parties are divided and many MEPs believe the call for a moratorium goes too far.

NATO said on Tuesday that its chief medical officers had compared evidence and seen nothing pointing to a serious health risk from depleted uranium munitions used in the Persian Gulf War and the Balkans.

"We cannot identify any increase in disease or mortality in soldiers who have deployed to the Balkans as compared to those soldiers who have not deployed," General Roger van Hoof said after a day-long meeting with his 18 counterparts on Monday.

In the meantime, residents of Iraq's second largest city are filled with dread at the growing debate over depleted uranium (DU) munitions and suspected links to cancer, as Iraq marks the 10th anniversary of the Persian Gulf War.

"Leukemia and radioactive pollution are now the number one topic of conversation among the people here in Basra," said student Saleh Neema.

Basra, located near the Kuwaiti and Iranian borders, bears the scars of both the conflict over Kuwait and the 1980-1988 war against Iran. Most walls are still pockmarked by bullets or by shrapnel from exploding shells.

"People are worried and living in fear of contracting cancerous diseases because of the pollution" from DU bullets fired by the U.S.-led allies during the Six-Week War that broke out on January 17, 1991, said Merchant Abdullah Hamid.

Awad Badran, a retired civil servant from Basra, which together with its outskirts has a population of around one million, said the widespread fear was having a social impact.

"Things are so bad in Basra that quite a number of people thinking of getting married are hesitant for fear of having children with deformities," he told AFP.

Iraq was hit with the force of seven nuclear bombs in 1991, according to Civil Defense Chief General Kassem al-Shamri, calculating on the basis of 141,921 tons of ammunition with which the country was pummeled in the Persian Gulf War.

As many as 940,000 rounds of DU were used. That, together with the explosion of two allied military vehicles loaded with DU arms, "polluted the environment and caused great damage to the public's health," he said.

Al-Jumhuriya, an official daily, has blamed DU for the deaths of 50,000 Iraqi children in 1991 alone and said it was behind a dramatic increase in cancer rates over the past decade, citing a report from Iraqi experts.

The worst polluted areas, covering more than 15 square kilometers (six square miles), were the Rumaila oil field, Al-Shamiya Airport and the Kuwaiti border area, all not far from Basra, it said.

Iraq has long argued that U.S. and British use of DU weapons during the Persian Gulf conflict caused "irreparable damage" to its people and environment, also pointing to previously unknown congenital deformities among infants.

NATO agreed last week to establish a special committee to investigate possible health risks from the use of DU munitions after a series of cancer deaths among veterans of the Balkans conflict.