KLINA, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - A scientific team from Portugal arrived in Kosovo Saturday to examine depleted uranium sites suspected of causing "Balkan Syndrome" illness among soldiers who have served in the province.

A crew of four from the Department of Radioactivity Protection went immediately to the Klina area in western Kosovo with Portuguese peacekeepers who work in the region.

There, the team checked the ground for radiation with Geiger counter-style machines and took soil samples in plastic bags.

"So far we have not found meaningful contamination, but the work is still far from the end," Fernando Carvalho, team leader, told Reuters Television.

"We are monitoring the contamination of the environment from radioactivity due to the use of depleted uranium bomb shells."

NATO has come under increasing pressure from several European countries in the last week over claims depleted uranium used in its weapons had caused death or illness among Balkan peacekeepers -- the so-called "Balkan Syndrome."

Portuguese Kosovo veteran Hugo Paulino died in March last year from a type of encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain, which his father has since maintained was brought on by exposure to depleted uranium.

Portugal's armed forces say there was no connection between Paulino's death and his serving in Kosovo.

Another soldier, Rui Miguel Alpalhao, has contracted leukemia since returning from Kosovo, but told Reuters he was unsure if his illness was linked to exposure to debris from spent munitions containing uranium.

In Lisbon, Prime Minister Antonio Guterres said Sunday Portuguese troops would continue their peacekeeping missions in Kosovo unless investigations showed their health to be at risk.

"I think any hasty action right now would be very negative," Guterres told TSF radio. "We continue with our initial action. We trust in the sense of responsibility of the armed forces.

"But, evidently, we will know how to act in their defense if and when that may be necessary," he added.

Several destroyed Serb Army tanks remain in the area around Klina, left behind when Serb forces left Kosovo in June 1999.

The tanks were apparently hit by depleted uranium shells fired by NATO aircraft during the alliance bombing campaign against Yugoslav forces in the spring of 1999.

NATO says the ammunition, which it also used in bombing campaigns against Serb forces in Bosnia in 1994-5, posed a "negligible hazard."