A team of Yugoslav experts made the study on the environmental effects of the NATO air strikes launched to stop President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo. The military says depleted uranium is a dense metal that provides enhanced armor-piercing capability.
Some specialists believe the uranium rounds are environmentally harmful.
But the U.S. Defense Department has defended the use of the uranium, saying the rounds contained no more health risk that conventional weapons. The Belgrade study aimed to give specifics on all environmental impacts of the airstrikes. The locations contaminated by the depleted uranium and described in the 75-page document include six sites in Serbia and one in Montenegro, Serbia's smaller partner in the Yugoslav federation, said Gen. Slobodan Petkovic, who presented the report for the Defense Ministry. The eighth location is in Kosovo, Serbia's southern province. The region is now run by U.N. and NATO peacekeepers, preventing examination of the contamination by a Yugoslav team, he said.