BABIES born near landfill sites have a "small excess risk" of birth defects, according to a report.

The findings will worry thousands of residents who live close to landfill sites in the North-East and North Yorkshire, especially near the 21 sites in the region which are licensed to take toxic and hazardous waste.

Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth said the report added weight to their call for a reduction in the amount of hazardous waste going into landfill sites.

Government scientists said the findings contained ''uncertainties'', and stressed that the risk was less than the damage caused to unborn babies by smoking or alcohol.

The "don't panic" message was reinforced by Newcastle University scientist Dr Patricia McElhatton, who is the UK's leading expert on the potential links between chemical pollution and birth deformities.

Dr McElhatton, who is researching the potential dangers of landfill sites for the Government, said: "The increased risk is miniscule. The good news is that there was no increased risk of cancer, leukaemia or stillbirths."

The Government's deputy chief health officer, Dr Pat Troop, accepted that the research, carried out between 1982 and 1997 on eight million pregnancies, showed that there was a slightly higher risk of birth defects for those living within two kilometres of Britain's 19,000 landfill sites.

However, Dr Troop said: ''We cannot say that there is no risk associated with landfill sites, but given the small number of congenital anomalies and the uncertainties in the findings, we are not changing our advice to pregnant women."

The research, published in the British Medical Journal today, found a one per cent increase in the risk of birth defects to babies born near a landfill site - which increases to seven per cent for those near a hazardous waste site.

The Department of Health said there were a number of technical reasons why the survey might not be accurate, which is why further research would take place.

Former Newcastle United striker Gavin Peacock has called for more research into landfill sites after his son Jake was born with his right hand missing. At the time, his family lived in County Durham, where there are six sites where toxic waste is dumped.