BELGRADE, Serbia-A Cabinet minister says Serbia has been cleared of depleted uranium left from NATO bombs dropped in 1999.

Ecology minister Sasa Dragin said Tuesday that authorities have removed all the remnants of the bombs.

NATO launched a bombing campaign against Serbia in March 1999 to stop an onslaught ordered by then-President Slobodan Milosevic against the ethnic Albanian separatist rebels in Kosovo. The air war lasted 78 days before Milosevic capitulated.

Depleted uranium is a byproduct of radioactive enriched uranium and a heavy metal suspected of causing birth defects and cancer if inhaled or ingested. That's especially so if it enters the food chain or contaminates water.