LONDON, Aug 24, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Serb forces used toxic

chemical agents against the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo between

the early 1990s and the end of NATO's air campaign in June, Jane's

Defence Weekly reported Monday.

The report was based on conclusions by A. Heindrickx, professor of

toxicology at the University of Ghent in Belgium and an expert for the

United Nations.

Serb forces used toxic gases including sarin which left "toxicological

patterns" resembling those seen in Iran after Iraqi bombings and in

Angola, Heindrickx said.

Heindrickx, who visited Tirana, the capital of neighboring Albania on

the invitation of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), estimated that some

4,000 ethnic Albanians, mostly children had been affected by neuro-toxic

gas use in the 1990s.

He said some 20 of the worst affected victims, members of the KLA, were

currently receiving treatment in Western Europe.

The FBI has also been to Tirana to investigate reports by the KLA of

chemical weapons use.

"The international community has a very big responsibility in this human

catastrophe and has to make (these findings) known," Heindrickx wrote.

((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)