NATO deputy spokesperson and the head of Press and Media Piers Cazalet told BBC in Serbian on Thursday there was no health risk from depleted uranium used in the Alliance’s bombing of former Yugoslavia during the 1998-1999 was in Kosovo.

Serbia’s media reported that the German soldiers who took part in NATO missions in the Balkans demanded compensation for their exposure to depleted uranium.

A gathering has been held in Rome dedicated to the consequences of the use of depleted uranium ammunition. The participants in the event, which was also attended by a Serbian delegation, said that it was time to hear the truth, and that NATO should never again use depleted uranium - as it had done during the 78-day bombing of Serbia in 1999.

Discovering facts about the harmful effects of depleted uranium on the population of Serbia would start at the end of August or beginning of September in Vranje, BETA news agency reported.

The news was announced by the chairperson of the Investigative Commission of NATO bombardment consequences, Darko Laketic.

Laketic also said he believes the first preliminary report can be done by 2020, since documentation received from the Italian Parliamentary Commission (on the consequences of depleted uranium on Italian soldiers who were in Kosovo in 1999) is very useful.

The first lawsuits are expected to be filed in the fall by Serbian citizens suffering from cancer.

They will sue NATO countries because of the use of depleted uranium during the 1999 bombing of Serbia.

This was announced on Monday President of the Association of Citizens "Depleted Uranium" Sveto Nogo. The lawsuits will be filed individually, he explained.

Domenico Leggero, one of the founders of Osservatorio Militare (Military Observatory) says he is willing to hand over to Serbia his documentation about NATO.

Leggero told the daily Vecernje Novosti that NATO had committed "a quiet, vicious murder" by using depleted uranium ammunition (while attacking Serbia in 1999, and Serb areas in Bosnia before that). For that reason, the Italian said, he was willing to help Serbia by handing over the documentation he gathered on the subject.

Italian Red Cross Colonel Emerico Maria Laccetti has told Vecernje Novosti that he had been diagnosed with a "giant lung tumor" upon returning from Kosovo.

According to Laccetti, the tumor was a direct consequence of exposure to ionizing radiation that he experienced there.

Depleted uranium ammunition was used by NATO during its bombing of Serbia, from March until June 1999.