LONDON (Reuters) - British war veterans are demanding a public inquiry after the government said that not all troops sent to the Balkans had been warned about possible risks from depleted uranium munitions. Ministers said last month that all British soldiers had been trained and advised about the possible dangers before their tours of duty in the Balkans, but Armed Forces Minister John Spellar said on Wednesday that had not been the case.

"This is not acceptable", Shaun Rusling, spokesman for the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, said.

"It's a complete U-turn on what they have said before. We again call for a public inquiry because the Ministry of Defence has not been telling the truth." Spellar said in a parliamentary written answer that a pre-deployment medical course that briefed soldiers on DU risks had been scrapped in August 2000.

"Although instructions are in place for all troops in theatre to be briefed on the risks of DU, contrary to the impression I gave...my department is now aware that not all of them have actually been briefed," Spellar wrote.

"It has not been possible to establish how many troops have not been briefed."

The veterans association also said the government had misled parliament over an army report on the potential DU hazard leaked to the media last month.

The Ministry of Defence had dismissed the report, prepared four years ago, as "flawed", "written by a trainee" and "never endorsed at senior level".

The association said it was written by Major AH Lyall Grant whose documents it said would have been submitted "at the highest level". "The evidence clearly shows that this officer was not a junior officer," Rusling said.

The government last month announced it would screen both Gulf War and Balkans veterans for the effects of DU exposure.

Controversy over the use of depleted uranium weapons used by NATO in the Balkans in 1999 erupted after reports from Italy that six soldiers had died of leukaemia.

Britain, along with NATO and the United States, insists there is no proof that DU weapons pose any health risk.

Cases of cancer have also been reported among soldiers from France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Portugal.

The United States, Britain and France have already rejected calls by their German, Italian and Greek allies -- all of whom have to take account of strong anti-NATO constituencies -- to retire what commanders say is the best tank-busting weapon.