BERLIN, Jan 5 (AFP) - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found several bomb craters contaminated with radioactivity in Kosovo, the Berlin-based Tageszeitung (taz) is reporting in its Saturday edition.

The leftwing tabloid cited an interim report by UNEP on uranium-containing munitions in the war-torn Yugoslav territory, dated December 29.

The taz said it possessed a copy of the interim report and that it contradicted Pentagon affirmations that no traces of depleted uranium were to be found in Kosovo.

According to the taz, the UNEP study was based on a map provided by NATO showing 112 bomb craters with traces of uranium-containing munitions.

Verification work at 12 of these sites by a UN team last November had found that eight of them had considerable contamination, the taz said, citing the UNEP report.

According to the paper, the team not only found concentrations of uranium dust, but also "numerous pieces" of unexploded munitions.

UNEP considers the results found at the 11 bomb craters investigated as "representative regarding all 112", the report says, according to the taz.

As a result, it said, UNEP had reiterated an urgent recommendation it made in October 1999 to close off all 112 sites. It was also recommending precautionary examination of residents in their immediate vicinity.

The UN team had only been able to carry out its studies in Kosovo regarding contamination by radiation, the taz report said.Investigations for possible soil- and water-contamination by highly toxic uranium dioxide dust resulting from the explosion of munitions containing depleted uranium are currently being carried out by five special laboratories, in Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Italy and Britain, it said.