PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 5 (AFP) - An Italian minister visited Kosovo to talk to peacekeepers Friday as fears mounted that the use of depleted uranium in NATO munitions could have caused cancers in troops. Marco Minniti, Italy's under-secretary for defence, first met with the Italian commander of Kosovo's KFOR peacekeeping force before moving on to visit the headquarters of his country's contingent in the province.

Ahead of the meeting, KFOR chief Lieutenant General Carlo Cabigiosu told reporters that a link between the use of depleted uranium (DU) in shells fired during NATO's Bosnian and Kosovo campaigns and leukemia later suffered by the Alliance's troops had "yet to be determined."

"According to the scientific evidence this doesn't seem to be the case (that there is a link), but if the statistics present aspects that are unusual we have to look at that," the general said, outside KFOR's Pristina headquarters. "We have to wait until we have specific information," he added.

Italy supplies the largest single contingent in Kosovo's multinational peacekeeping force, with 6,859 personnel out of a total 44,000 KFOR troops. Most Italians are based in the west of Kosovo in the region around the town of Pec which was one of the main areas where DU shells were used during NATO's bombardment of Yugoslav targets in the 78-day air war which preceded KFOR's arrival in the breakaway province.

Seven Italian military personnel and one Red Cross worker have contracted cancer after serving in the Balkans, and NATO has promised the Rome it will hold an inquiry into whether the deaths were linked to DU use.

Five Belgians, two Dutch, a Portuguese and a Czech are reported to have died from leukemia since returning from the region. Four French soldiers have also contracted the disease, and Greece is investigating another possible case.

At Italy's request, the ambassadors of the 19 NATO member-states will discuss the issue at an informal meeting next Tuesday, before the weekly meeting of the NATO council on Wednesday.

The DU munitions, in which the heavy metal is used to make shells denser so they can cut through armour, were fired by US aircraft -- some of them based in Italian airbases -- during the bombing of Bosnia and Kosovo.

Washington has sought to play down fears about the effects of the metal, which some experts believe could cause cancers, especially if breathed in in dust form after a shell has impacted on or near its target. The Pentagon has rejected Italian calls for a moratorium on its use.

Around 31,000 DU munitions were fired at targets in Kosovo and Serbia-proper during the 1998 air campaign, mainly by the American A-10 Thunderbolt "tankbuster" jet.

A scientific team put together by the United Nations Environment Programme visited Kosovo in November last year and collected samples of soil and spent munition from 11 sites among the 112 identified by NATO as having been targeted by DU.

The team's preliminary findings found that the sites had "slightly higher radioactivity" than normal and called for them to been cleaned up with "some precaution."

But the final results of the testing of the samples are not expected until next month, and the head of the team, Pekka Haavisto, said that DU was very low on the list of possible health hazards in Kosovo, comparing exposure to receiving a dental X-ray.