Iraq and the World Health Organization have agreed to study the connection between depleted uranium and diseases found among Iraq's population following the 1991 GulfWar, the WHO announced yesterday.

Baghdad says cancer rates have quadrupled in areas of southern Iraq that were bombed by the coalition of countries opposed to Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Representatives from Iraq and the WHO drew up a framework for future collaboration during talks in Geneva this week, according to WHO spokesperson Melinda Henry. She added that the project will also include research on environmental health risks to explore other factors which may be responsible for increases in certain diseases. Iraq's Foreign Minister Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf told the UN Human Rights Commission yesterday that the use of depleted uranium by the United States and the United Kingdom during the 1991 campaign polluted water, land and air, and will persist for many generations.

 Proposals for projects and estimated costs from Iraq and the WHO are expected by the end of June (Agence France-Presse/ReliefWeb, 12 Apr).