BRITAIN: Conservative and SNP politicians in Scotland yesterday urged the British government to declare a moratorium on test firing depleted uranium. A programme to test a new batch of the weapons began close to the Solway Firth.

The SNP MP, Mr Alasdair Morgan, said local opposition to the programme was growing and he called on the Ministry of Defence to suspend shelling until a screening programme was established for military and civilian personnel to assess the potential health risks of the exercise.

The MoD has fired about 7,000 depleted uranium-tipped armour-piercing shells into the Solway Firth during the last 20 years. The testing programme was the first since veterans of the Gulf and Balkans conflicts dismissed NATO's statement last month that it had found no link between the ammunition and an increase in cancers and other serious illnesses among military personnel.

A Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament, Mr Ben Wallace, insisted the MoD must recognise local concerns.

The ministry said: "We are testing the accuracy of the shells by firing them against soft targets, and the alleged health risks occur when the shells are fired at hard targets like tanks."