Additional reporting by Nicholas Blanford JDW Correspondent; Beirut and Radu Tudor JDW Correspondent Bucharest

European Union: On 17 January, the European Parliament called for a moratorium on the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by EU and NATO members.

NATO: Chairman of the NATO Chiefs of Military Medical Services Committee, Maj Gen Roger van Hoof, said on 16 January that his committee "cannot find any increase in blood cancers or deaths in soldiers ... deployed to the Balkans". NATO says that there is no need for a moratorium on the use of DU as its members are not involved in any conflicts at present. A NATO working group has been established to act as an information clearing-house to include non-NATO contributors to Kosovo Force and Stabilisation Force operations. On 23 January, the Ad Hoc Committee on Depleted Uranium, established on 10 January, said that it had still not found any evidence to link illness among Balkans veterans to DU. However, the alliance has supplied detailed maps to concerned nations of where DU munitions had been fired in the Balkans and made them available on its website. In the NATO Stabilisation Force's (SFOR's) official publication, SFOR Informer, the force's commander Lt Gen Michael Dodson set out what information was available on the use of DU in Bosnia and its possible effects in an effort to reassure his troops and contributing nations.

United Nations: Chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Carle Del Ponte, says that she would be willing to consider charges on the use of DU, but that there would need to be "concrete scientific evidence" that there had been a violation of an "article or convention". The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) says that the DU rounds fired in Kosovo also contained traces of more radioactive-enriched uranium. Responding to a request from Iraq, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on 25 January that it would send a team to study the effects of DU weapons used against the country during the 1990-91 Gulf War. On the same day, UNEP and the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a joint statement saying that they were considering sending fact-finding missions to Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Iraq to look into the issue. A four-strong team from WHO sent to Kosovo to look at the issue said on 31 January that they had found firm evidence to "link individual medical cases in Kosovo to exposure to depleted uranium", but said that much more analysis was necessary. On 5 February, WHO experts said that the health risks of DU would have to be reassessed in the light of evidence that the munitions may contain traces of other more radioactive substances such as plutonium.

Australia: The government said on 11 January that it would screen all armed forces personnel who had served in the Balkans. On 21 January, the Department of Defence said that each veteran would have blood and urine tests as part of the screening.

Belgium: The government will screen its veterans, but a group of military veterans said that they were planning civil action against the MoD. Lawyers acting for a group of Belgian veterans said on 18 January that they had filed the first of three suits against the government seeking compensation.

Canada: The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) is compiling a database of the health of its personnel in an effort to dismiss the "false perception" that large numbers of them have been afflicted with Gulf War or Balkan syndromes. Col Scott Cameron the CAF's Surgeon General told the local Ottawa Citizen on 5 February that "with the huge amount of media attention that's been paid to this for the last 10 years, this has become a significant health-care issue for us to address as a military health-care service".

France: The government said that five of its Balkan veterans are being treated for leukaemia. It is also screening its veterans. France says that tests on cancer victims show no traces of DU.

Germany: After initial denials of any possible risk, the German MoD has also given in to pressure for a screening programme and on 9 January joined Italian calls for a moratorium on DU use while there is further investigation into the risks. However, Defence Minister Rudolf Scharping continued to emphasise that there was no established risk. After initially denying that DU rounds had ever been fired on German soil, the government said that it could no longer rule out the possibility that DU rounds had been fired either by US forces stationed in the country or by domestic armaments companies testing research products. German residents living near training grounds are demanding that the government make more efforts to investigate the possibility of contamination. Visiting Sarajevo, Bosnia, on 20 January, Scharping criticised the USA over the use of DU, suggesting that it had held back information from its allies. On 27 January Scharping accused opponents of the 1999 NATO campaign of whipping up fears over the DU issue. On 3 February the GSF Research Centre for Environment and Health "completely" ruled out any dangers to the health of service personnel and the general population from traces of plutonium in DU rounds.

Greece: Screening its veterans, but has rejected domestic pressure to withdraw its troops from the region. The armed forces confirmed that one Balkans veteran has died from leukaemia. It also said on 8 January that it would withdraw DU ammunition from its inventory. On 22 January, about 70 Greek soldiers returned from peacekeeping duty in Kosovo, including an unspecified number who had been granted requests to cut short their six-month tours. The Greek government said that it had received 150 applications for early return from its 1,500 peacekeepers in the region.

Ireland: Will be screening peacekeepers who have served in the Balkans. There are currently 100 Irish soldiers in Kosovo and 50 in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Around 700 have been on duty in the Balkans.

Italy: Italy instigated the current concerns over DU munitions when it was discovered that seven of its soldiers who had served in the Balkans had developed leukaemia. This resulted in calls from within NATO for an investigation into DU risks and, on 9 and 10 January, Italy called for a moratorium on the use of DU while an investigation takes place. On 18 January, Italian Defence Minister Sergio Mattarella told parliament that the number of cases of soldiers being investigated was 31, including eight who had died. The Chief of General Staff, Gen Mario Arpino, said on 19 January that the press had adopted an "offensive attitude" to the military command and attributed "diseases and deaths to depleted uranium without any proof whatsoever". On 1 February, about 40 experts from Rome's Institute for Radiology hired by the Italian armed forces began checking the 1,600 strong contingent of Italian peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia for potential health hazards related to DU. On 1 February Italy proposed that NATO set up a "code of communications" on the use of armaments by its member states. NATO Secretary-General George Robertson did not rule out the proposal.

Israel has denied accusations by Lebanon and the Palestine Authority that it used DU munitions in either South Lebanon or the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Lebanon: The Lebanese government has ordered an investigation into the suspected use of ammunition containing DU by the Israel Defence Force (IDF) during its occupation of South Lebanon. If evidence emerges that the IDF used DU ammunition, it will be included in a future lawsuit claiming damages from Israel for its 22-year occupation. The investigation was announced amid indications of increased cases of cancer among Lebanese living in the south. "If we find evidence of uranium, we will inform the United Nations and the world and demand that Israel is held accountable," said the Lebanese Minister of Information Ghazi Aridi.

New Zealand: The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said in January that it would investigate whether any NZDF personnel had been exposed to DU during the Gulf War or in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Norway: On 5 January, the Norwegian armed forces said that it would send all personnel who had served in the Balkans a letter asking them to report any illnesses that could be related to DU exposure. On 8 January, the Norwegian government said that it would screen at least 20,000 soldiers. In January about 400 soldiers from the Telemark Battalion refused to sign contracts to start service in the region in June until they receive clarification of the risk from DU, but later reports said that all the troops had signed up to go.

Portugal: The country was among the first NATO members to begin screening its 10,000 military and civilian Balkan veterans after initial fears late last year. It has sent a scientific team to Kosovo to investigate. One Portuguese soldier has been diagnosed with cancer since returning from a tour in Kosovo.

Romania: Starting on 8 January, the Romania military began screening some 1,440 soldiers who had served as peacekeepers in Bosnia.

Russia: On 21 January, first deputy commander of the Russian airborne troops Lt Gen Nikolay Staskov said that 70% of Russian peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia and Kosovo had been tested and that there was no evidence of leukaemia. He also said that there was no evidence of leukaemia among veterans from the region. Russia has 3,600 troops serving in Kosovo according to Lt Gen Staskov

Spain: According to local press reports, seven Spanish soldiers and one civilian have been diagnosed with cancer since returning from tours in the Balkans; two of them have since died. The Spanish authorities were also quick to act on fears at the beginning of the year and offer screening to Balkans veterans. On 16 January, Minister of Defence Frederico Trillo told parliament that DU was not to blame for cases of cancer in the military. About 32,000 Spanish soldiers have served in the region.

Sweden: Government officials said on 8 January that all soldiers who had served in the Balkans would be informed of the possible health risks and asked to fill in a questionnaire about their health. About 10,000 Swedish peacekeepers have served in the Balkans since 1993.

Switzerland: The Swiss MoD said on 7 January that all 900 of its Balkan veterans would be screened after the local press reported that one veteran had died in 1998 from leukaemia. Swiss experts helping the UN Environment Programme investigation said that they have also found traces of highly radioactive plutonium in the debris of DU munitions fired in Kosovo.

Turkey: Screening its Balkan veterans, but the Turkish Armed Forces said that initial tests had showed no evidence of exposure to DU.

UK: The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has maintained that there is no evidence to link DU exposure to the health problems being reported by some 1990-91 Gulf War and Balkan veterans. However, reports in the UK press on 11 January reported the existence of a leaked MoD document written four years ago that warned of increased risk of radiation exposure for soldiers working in vehicles that had been hit by DU rounds. The MoD played down the report, saying that it was a draft written by a "trainee" and contained scientific inaccuracies. On 15 January, Secretary of State for Defence Geoffrey Hoon told parliament that the MoD had always acknowledged the low-level risk of DU, including the "risk to soldiers who go into the burned-out shell of a tank immediately after it has been hit by a depleted uranium shell". On 8 January, there were 2,265 UK service personnel in Bosnia and 3,351 in Kosovo. The government cited a Manchester University study that observed that only 64 of 53,000 armed forces personnel who served in the 1990-91 Gulf War have died from all causes, while 68 in a control group have died. On 25 January, the MoD released a number of documents that it said supported the government's opinion that DU did not provide a significant risk to the health of service personnel.

Ukraine: On 5 January the Ukrainian government announced that it would screen its Balkans veterans. On 8 January, President Leonid Kuchma called for a moratorium on the use of DU ammunition. On 19 January, Ukraine said that it would carry out additional testing on Balkan veterans and sent a team of experts to test soldiers stationed in the region. On 29 January specialists from the Ministry of Defence said that they had found no evidence of leukaemia in the country's peacekeepers nor areas of high radiation where they were serving.

USA: After studies conducted in 1999 and 2000, the US Department of Defense (DoD) maintains it has found no link between DU and health risks to military personnel. The DoD acknowledged that the Department of Energy had found that the US stockpile of DU munitions did contain trace amounts of transuranic elements, including plutonium, but that this only raised the "already negligible" radiation levels by less than 1%. Former US Army Col Asaf Durakovic who was tasked with examining US Gulf War veterans who had developed illnesses following their service says that some of those illnesses may be linked to the use of DU in the conflict and Uranium 236 isotopes that he says he found in their bodies. In late January Col Eric Daxon, the DU consultant to the Army Surgeon General, was sent to Europe to convince the USA's allies that there was no link between DU and leukaemia. During his visit he briefed the military medical chiefs of the other NATO members and said that there were 35 studies that supported his conclusions.

Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland: Also screening peacekeepers who have served in Bosnia and Kosovo. Chief of the Hungarian Army's medical section, Gen Laszlo Sved, said on 8 January that one soldier had developed leukaemia among the 7,000 who had served in the Balkans, but had first shown signs of the disease before his posting to the region. On 31 January a member of the Czech Army's chemical unit said that a link between DU used by NATO and cancer did not exist. A seven-strong team visited the Czech Republic's KFOR contingent to carry out radiation and chemical tests.

 In wars using DU, the fine DU dusts can lodge in persons lungs near target areas and there bioconcentrate into the lungs lymph nodes and there add to other environmetal toxins to shut down the action of macrophages leading to failing tissue repair mechanims, aging, and more rapid onset of other diseases, including cancer.The failing of this cellular immune function leads to a wide number of disease syndromes steming from one toxic effect machanism related to DU.