Sunday, 18 Mar 2007 11:51
The four-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq will be marked on Tuesday
More than a million people may have been killed since the US-led coalition invaded Iraq in 2003.
The estimate has been made by an Australian academic who claims to have analysed four separate independent data sources, including UN figures and local hospital records.
Ahead of Tuesday's four-year anniversary of the invasion, previous estimates had put the death toll of civilians, soldiers and militants at about 650,000.
"Using the most comprehensive and authoritative literature and UN demographic data yields an estimate of one million post-invasion excess deaths in Iraq," Dr Gideon Polya said.
The claim comes as the commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, admitted that the effects of recent drives to improve security in the troubled Middle Eastern country would not be seen until the summer.
"By early June, we should then have everyone roughly in place - and that will allow us to establish the density in partnership with Iraqi security forces that you need to really get a good grip on the security situation," he told the BBC.
Late last year George Bush signalled his intention to send 21,500 additional US troops to Iraq, despite the influential Iraq Study Group recommending a phased withdrawal.
But the president's plans could be stopped dead by Democrat-controlled Congress, which has already voiced its opposition to the proposals.
Thousands of anti-war protestors have been marching in the US over the weekend ahead of this week's four-year Iraq conflict anniversary.
Demonstrators in Washington followed a similar route taken by activists protesting against the Vietnam war 40 years ago.