LISBON, Jan 6, 2001 -- (Reuters) Like several soldiers who served in Kosovo, Rui Manuel Apalhao is fighting for his life after contracting leukemia.

In October, Apalhao was diagnosed with the disease -- the same illness which has killed six Italian peacekeepers who served in the Balkans prompting concerns they may have died of exposure to debris from spent depleted uranium-tipped munitions.

"I am now undergoing chemotherapy. I just have to keep up the treatment and hope I might at least improve," Apalhao told Reuters on Saturday. "I have read about the Italians, but I can't be certain (of a link). I may have caught it (leukemia) there, or elsewhere, I don't know."

The United Nations announced hours earlier it had found evidence of radioactivity at eight of 11 sites tested in Kosovo after they were struck by NATO ammunition with depleted uranium during 1999 bombings. NATO has come under increasing pressure from several European governments over claims that depleted uranium used in NATO weapons had caused death or illness among Balkan peacekeepers, a condition dubbed "Balkans Syndrome".

PORTUGAL CONDUCTS OWN TESTS

Portugal has started medical testing of civilian personnel and troops who were stationed in the Balkans and is also sending a team of scientists to Kosovo to test uranium levels in areas where its soldiers are still based.

Apalhao, 22, was stationed in the same part of Kosovo as Italian troops in 1999, on a peacekeeping mission shortly after the NATO alliance expelled Serbian forces that were repressing ethnic Albanians.

Last October he suddenly began to lose weight, suffer from headaches, fatigue and nausea. Then he was admitted to hospital and told he had leukemia.

Manuel Leite, who served in a parachute regiment in the same detachment as Apalhao, now has the same symptoms and fears that he too may be seriously ill.

"I hope that this is just a false alarm, that the symptoms are of a virus that is curable," said Leite, 21, who expects to begin tests next week.

He added that he was in the same squad as Hugo Paulino, who died last March from a type of encephalitis -- or inflammation of the brain -- which his father says was brought on by exposure to depleted uranium. Portugal's armed forces say there is no connection between Paulino's death and his time in Kosovo.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres called on Friday for a full investigation into the potential hazards of depleted uranium.

"The moment has come for us to stop trusting entirely in others, as we had been doing quite legitimately up to now," news agency Lusa quoted Guterres as saying.

U.S. fighter aircraft fired some 31,000 rounds of depleted uranium ammunition against Serbian targets during NATO's 1999 campaign in Kosovo. Another 10,000 rounds were fired in neighboring Bosnia in 1994-5.

But NATO dismisses any link to illnesses, saying that the threat from the depleted uranium posed a "negligible hazard".