The military yesterday confirmed that it has a considerable number of depleted uranium shells in its arsenal, but said the ammunition is safe in storage and will not be used until wartime.

The depleted uranium shells, estimated to number in the tens of thousands, are now being kept by the army, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.

The ministry said it will speak more on the matter today at its regular press conference, as international worries grow over the safety of such munitions.

Concerns have arisen over NATO's use of ammunition containing depleted uranium, first, in Bosnia and then on a much larger scale in the 1999 air campaign against Yugoslavia. Reports say NATO peacekeepers have fallen ill as a result of exposure to the ammunition, although NATO has denied the shells pose a health risk.

"We [the army] have not used any of the depleted uranium rounds since delivery of them from the US. All the shells are now in safe storage and subject to routine radioactive checks," said Lieutenant Colonel Li Hsiao-kuan (§õ¾å¥ú), a senior news officer with the army general headquarters.

The depleted uranium munitions were bought by the army and navy in recent years for use by its tanks and warships.

The army's rounds are mainly 105mm armor piercing shells used by the M-48H and M60-A3 tanks -- the army's two main battle tanks.

"The munitions, around 10,000 rounds in total, have not been used since delivery. The armor piercing shells the army is now using are conventional shells. The depleted uranium munition is not allowed to be used unless in war," Li said.

But the depleted uranium munition owned by the navy was used for some time before the rest of the rounds were put into storage two years ago. The shells are used by the Phalanx anti-aircraft weapon system on every warship in the service.

"We [the navy] have replaced the depleted uranium shells for the Phalanx gun with tungsten alloys. All the depleted uranium rounds have been sent to the army for safe storage," a navy official said.

"It is current defense minister Wu Shih-wen (¥î¥@¤å) who ordered the storage of depleted uranium rounds in the navy in October 1998, as he was still the navy chief. The order was made on the basis of notifications from the US," the official said.

"It is not known what happened at the time. We followed Wu's order to store the depleted uranium rounds and were told not to use them until war," he said.

The navy official declined to reveal how many of the depleted uranium rounds the navy had fired before it stopped using them. He denied media reports that the number was as high as 50,000.

He also refused to comment on whether any suspected links between physical illnesses among sailors and use of depleted uranium munition has been found.

According to an army official familiar with the issue, there is not enough personnel and equipment to carry out radioactive checks on the sites where the depleted uranium munition is stored.