PARIS, June 15 (Reuters) - France said on Thursday it might call a meeting of army doctors who served in the 1991 Gulf conflict to help shed light on the first claims made by self-described French victims of mysterious Gulf War syndrome.
``The army medical corps has so far not identified a single case of any personnel suffering from the syndrome as described by American military doctors,'' defence ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau told reporters.
``But we have not ruled out calling together all the military doctors who served in the Gulf to see if they can remember anything that can help clarify this situation.''
Thousands of veterans in the United States and Britain say they have been affected by the mystery syndrome, complaining of symptoms ranging from flu to chronic fatigue and asthma.
Bureau said the French military had so far registered only one claim, still pending, from a French Gulf War veteran asking for an invalid's pension on grounds he suffered from the syndrome.
But a French parliamentarian said on Wednesday there were two other veterans who believed they were also sufferers.
The daily Liberation reported that a veterans' group now being created believed it could list 30 cases from among the estimated 18,000 French soldiers who served in the Gulf.
An appeals court is due to rule in September on the first French claim, made by former corporal Herve Desplat, now 30.
Desplat says he came down with tuberculosis in 1993, two years after leaving the army, and lost tufts of hair and many of his teeth, and shed 20 kg (44 pounds) in weight.
Desplat said his health troubles were due to ``a cocktail'' of environmental hazards he faced during the 1991 war and some white pills he was given before the allied offensive against Iraq.
Medical experts have not established a link between the war and his ailment but Desplat's lawyer Gerard Boulanger said they had not ruled it out either.
A lawyer for the government asked the appeals court in the southwestern French city of Bordeaux to uphold a pension court's rejection of Desplat's claim.
Many U.S. and British soldiers blame Gulf War syndrome on drugs they were given to counter possible Iraqi chemical weapon attacks during the 1991 conflict.
Similar antidotes were distributed to French troops but they were told not to take them until ordered to do so after an conventional-weapons attack.
A few French soldiers took the antidote on their own initiative but there have been no reports of after-effects, according to the French military.
13:26 06-15-00
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