PARIS, Jan 5, 2001 -- (Reuters) France said on Friday it backed an Italian demand for NATO to investigate claims that Balkans peacekeepers died as a result of exposure to depleted uranium from spent ammunition fired by NATO forces.

"The Italian request is justified," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said, adding that France would "provide its partners with all the information they needed".

Six Italian soldiers died of leukemia after serving in the Balkans, sparking demands from Rome earlier this week that NATO look into the risks the troops had been exposed to.

Portugal and Belgium, who have also reported deaths among soldiers who served in the Balkans, have backed the call.

On Thursday France confirmed that four of its soldiers had contracted leukemia after working in the Balkans.

The defense ministry said there was nothing at present linking their illness to exposure to the ammunition, but added it had ordered an investigation into how the soldiers became ill and the risks they had faced.

NATO said the Italian request would be examined by the North Atlantic Council next Tuesday.

"We hope this meeting will be serious and constructive," said the French foreign ministry spokesman.

NATO forces are reported to have fired some 10,000 rounds of armor-piercing depleted uranium ammunition in Bosnia around Sarajevo between 1994 and 1995, and some 31,500 during the NATO air campaign to push Serb forces out of Kosovo in 1999.

France holds stocks of the ammunition but did not use it in the Balkans, the defense ministry said.