Junior defence minister Lewis Moonie said researchers from King's College London, would be monitoring personnel who served in the conflict for possible physical or psychological problems.

Initially, the King's College team will carry out detailed face-to-face interviews with up to 50 personnel to identify any "emerging concerns", Moonie said in a written House of Commons statement.

The findings will form the basis of a questionnaire to be distributed to a "large representative cohort" of the 45,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen who were deployed in the Gulf region, seeking information about their health status and possible exposure to harmful substances.

Ministry of defence ministry officials, humanitarian aid workers, and "embedded" journalists who accompanied British combat units will also be invited to participate.

The researchers will aim to keep in touch with those who complete the questionnaires, in order to carry out further surveys and monitor any changes.

Their work is to be monitored by an oversight board chaired by an independent scientist, with members drawn from both the ministry of defence and outside bodies.

In addition, any British personnel who were deployed in the Gulf and who are worried about their health will be able to attend a medical assessment programme run by the ministry at Saint Thomas's Hospital in London.

"It is too soon to know whether health concerns will emerge, but we are of course conscious of the range of physical and psychological health concerns reported by veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf conflict," Moonie said.

"If health concerns arise out of the current operations, we will want to identify and investigate them as soon as possible."

The British government has never accepted the existence of Gulf War syndrome arising from the 1991 war that forced Iraq out of Kuwait.

Its officials have argued that health problems among Gulf War veterans were no different from those which they could have experienced had they not been involved the conflict.

This view has clashed with veterans' conviction that their range of physical and psychological ailments are connected to their service.

A range of possible explanations for Gulf War syndrome has been put forward, including exposure to depleted uranium munitions or the side effects from the various vaccinations they were given.

WAR.WIRE