LONDON (Reuters) - Gulf War syndrome, the mysterious illness that has affected veterans of the 1991 conflict, is linked to the multiple vaccines given to soldiers during the war, British researchers said Friday.

Their study of 923 veterans with records of their vaccinations showed that health problems such as fatigue, muscle pain and difficulty with concentration and memory were associated with the vaccines they received during, but not before, their deployment. "There doesn't seem to be a specific effect of an individual vaccine," Dr. Matthew Hotopf of the Gulf War Research Unit at King College's College in London told a news conference.

"The key finding of this paper is that multiple vaccines received before going to the Gulf War are not associated with increased risk...but if you received multiple vaccines during deployment it does seem to increase risk quite steadily," he said.

The research paper was published in the British Medical Journal.

The scientists said the multiple vaccines in themselves do not seem to be harmful, but were linked to a variety of health problems combined with the    physical and psychological stress of deployment.

Veterans who received six or more vaccines against conditions such as hepatitis, polio and typhoid, as well as anthrax and plague, had the most health problems.

   CALLS FOR PUBLIC INQUIRY

British veterans welcomed the study -- funded by the U.S. Department of Defense -- and called for a public inquiry into other factors that may have contributed to Gulf War syndrome.

"We now have a number of pieces to a very complex jigsaw," said John Nichols, a Gulf War veteran and president of the Gulf War veterans branch of the Royal British Legion.

"But what this study hasn't examined and what nobody has looked at yet is the effect of multiple vaccines under stress alongside such things as smoke from the oil fires, chemical warfare antidotes, depleted uranium use, pesticides and a multitude of other inputs."

He said a public inquiry may allay the fears of the veterans and serving military personnel and come up with a reason why so many veterans are ill and hundreds have died.

Nichols also criticized Britain for not funding the study.

"It is a sad indictment that this study has not been funded by our own country but by the United States Department of Defense," he said, adding that British servicemen and women deserved better treatment than they have been getting.

Hotopf and his colleagues said their finding was just a piece of a complicated puzzle of Gulf War illness and certainly not the end of the story.

"There are obviously many other health hazards veterans have been exposed to," he said.

The researchers said their results implied that routine vaccines for the military should be maintained during peacetime. They stressed that civilian vaccine programs are safe.

They said they were continuing their research into Gulf War syndrome and other scientists in the United States, Australia, Canada and Denmark were conducting similar studies.

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