The British Ministry of Defence is to study new US research showing that the number of Gulf War troops put at risk by a poisonous cloud of Iraqi chemicals has been underestimated. British officials have asked the Americans for the results of new findings showing that winds at the time may have spread the gas further than they had thought.
But neither the MoD nor the Americans believe there is any connection between the gas and the "Gulf War syndrome" reported by some veterans of the conflict.
The Pentagon now believes five times as many US troops may have been affected by the chemicals than their original estimate.
The CIA admitted last year that when US troops bombed a chemical weapons depot at Khamisiyah, in southern Iraq, on March 10th, 1991, it produced a poisonous cloud which drifted over Allied troops.
It was not realised until 1996 - years after the war - that 122 mm chemical rockets had been stored in the depot.
Now US researchers estimate that the gas travelled as far as 300 miles and that some 98,900 troops were under the cloud between March 10th and 13th.