MOSCOW, Jan 7 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that the use of force in the former Yugoslavia was "absolutely unacceptable" with depleted uranium or not, according to NTV television.

"The use of force in Yugoslavia and in Europe in the 20th and  21st centuries is absolutely unacceptable and it matters little whether it is with depleted uranium or not," Putin told a press conference at Moscow airport.

Putin was reacting to fears of a health risk for personnel who served in the Balkans where the United States used shells tipped with depleted uranium -- used for its armour piercing capability. "We still have too little information on the issue to draw conclusions, but even the fact that force was used is bad," the Russian leader told journalists.

Putin was accompanying German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to the airport at the end of an informal visit to the Russian capital by the German leader.

Schroeder added, "We want to know why such weapons were used" in the Balkans, adding that "the use of such weapons which harm soldiers' health is unacceptable."

Veterans' groups and soldiers' families are blaming the use of depleted uranium weapons used by US forces in Bosnia between 1994 and 1995 and in Kosovo in 1999 for causing cancers among troops who served in the region.

According to official figures, seven Italian soldiers, five Belgians, two Dutch, two Spaniards, a Portuguese and a Czech have died from cancers since returning from the Balkans. Four French soldiers and four Belgians have also contracted leukemia.