THOUSANDS of soldiers who served in Nato forces in Kosovo are to be tested for radiation after claims of serious medical problems caused by Balkan War Syndrome.

Portugal and Spain this week will join Italy, France and Belgium in a systematic review of the health of the troops they sent to the region to discover whether they were exposed to dangerous levels of depleted uranium in shells used by American forces.

Portugal will also send military personnel and scientists to Kosovo to test radiation levels where the shells were used.

The decision follows a national outcry over the death from leukaemia of Hugo Paulino a young Portuguese corporal, three week after returning from peacekeeping in Kosovo.

The Defence Ministry refused to release his body to his family for an autopsy and radiation testing, citing herpes of the brain as the cause of death.

"It was depleted uranium that killed him," insisted his father, Luis, in an interview with Portuguese television.

Two Italian soldiers have died of leukaemia since returning from Kosovo and a leaked military document published last week said Italian soldiers were dying from leukaemia caused by depleted uranium.

Politicians in Portugal and Italy have accused Nato of a cover-up.

This leaves Britain increasingly isolated as one of the few members of the Nato forces not carrying out any investigation.

A spokeswoman for Britain's Ministry of Defence said that it was monitoring the investigations by its Nato allies but had no plans to test its own soldiers.

"We do take the welfare of our personnel very seriously and we'll keep an eye on the outcome of any further investigations into depleted uranium," she said.

"Our medical advice is that depleted uranium is no more radioactive than, for example, a household smoke detector. It does nave a recognised toxicity but only if ingested into the digestive system."

In Belgrade, Yugoslavia's new president has purged Milosevic loyalists from the military including a former defence minister and indicted war crimes suspect, General DragoIjub Ojdanic, and two senior officers of the army's secret service, General Geza Farkas and Lt-Col Aleksandar VasilJevic.

But General Nebojsa Pavkovic, the military chief who switched sides during the pro-democracy uprising in September, retained his post as chief of the Yugoslav army.