Many thousands of people have died in the Iraq conflict since the US-led coalition invaded in March 2003. But establishing exactly how many lives have been lost is a controversial topic, with most estimates tending to produce very different figures.

Over 3,000 soldiers from the coalition have died so far, but US forces do not keep complete records of civilians killed in the conflict.

Nor does the Iraqi government have a precise figure, although estimates from the health ministry in November 2006 range from 100,000 to 150,000 dead.

This contrasts with a survey of Iraqi households published by the Lancet, which suggested that up to 655,000 Iraqi deaths had occurred "as a consequence of the war," by July 2006.

These two estimates are both much higher than the running total of reported civilian deaths maintained by the campaign group, Iraq Body Count.

Using two media reports as their source for each death they count, IBC say that the civilian death toll is now in the region of 50,000 people, including over 2,500 police.