Five sites near Baghdad, described by the UN Environment Programmeas "the tip of the iceberg", have been identified for an initial clean-up, but there are thought to be thousands more.

"There are thousands of polluted areas in Iraq, either from industrial or military pollution," Iraq's environment minister, Narmin Othman, said at the launch of a UNEP assessment of environmental "hotspots" in Iraq.

The UNEP report highlighted the Al Qadyissa metal plating facility, bombed during the US invasion of Iraq, where several tonnes of cyanide pellets are scattered around a site that is accessible to children.

Other immediate priority areas include pesticides and petrochemicals warehouses and a military scrapyard.

Many of them have been contaminating farm land and drinking water, or are close to impoverished communities who looted sites without knowing the risks.

The Ouireej site was a military ammunition dump. Two people have been killed by explosions and by poisoning during clean-up attempts there over the past two years, according to the report, which included pictures of children playing in the site.

"Wars, conflicts, instability and the poor environmental management of the previous regime have left their scars on the Iraqi people and the Iraqi environment," UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer said.

A UNEP expert, Mu ralee Thummarukundy, said the five sites were not the worst cases of pollution but were chosen initially because of their proximity to local communities and security conditions.

The report did not cover pollution caused by uranium-hardened shells used during tank battles or aerial bombardments in Iraq in 1991 and 2003.

"We do not only have chemicals, we even have radiation. We have depleted uranium radiation, a good programme has identified 311 sites polluted by depleted uranium, especially in the south," Othman told journalists.

Toepfer said a separate project was being set up with British funding to train Iraqi experts to deal with depleted uranium, which was used to harden munitions.

He declined to comment on the level of danger the depleted uranium might represent.

Five key causes of severe pollution by chemicals and heavy metals were identified, ranging from the 1980 Iran-Iraq war, the two Gulf Wars, to years of environmental neglect under Saddam Hussein's regime and looting which spread contamination.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.