BUCHAREST, Jan 9 (AFP) - A Romanian soldier who served in Bosnia claimed Tuesday that he was suffering from leukemia brought on by exposure from depleted uranium (DU) munitions.

 Speaking on Antena 1 television, the soldier, Petre Amin, said the blood disease had been detected several months after his return from the Balkans, but that it was only recently that he drew the link between other similar cases mentioned in the media as being part of "Balkans syndrome".

 Doctors had however denied "any direct link" between the soldier's tour of duty in Bosnia and the illness.

 The head of the Romanian army's medical studies centre, General Victor Voicu, said that most of the 1,500 Romanian soldiers who had served in Bosnia had been deployed in areas away from NATO attacks, meaning that the risk of exposure to DU ammunition was "very minimal, even non-existent".

 The defence ministry had said last Friday that none of its soldiers were suffering symptoms consistent with exposure to radiation.

 The government said Tuesday, however, that all its armed force personnel who had been in the Balkans would undergo a new battery of tests from Thursday.