International public health experts on Friday urged the United States and Britain to count the number of Iraqis who died as a result of the US-led war against Iraq.

The number of the war-related casualties that the United States and Britain rely on was unreliable, the experts from Britain, the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy and Australia said in a statement published by the British Lancet Medical Journal on Friday.

The tally provided by the Iraqi Health Ministry did not include deaths in the first year after the US launched the war and did nottake into account nonviolent deaths caused indirectly by the war or those not reported to the health care system, the experts argued.

"Counting casualties can help to save lives both now and in thefuture by helping to understand the burden of death, and residual burden of injury, disease and trauma across the entire population," they stressed.

The Iraqi Health Ministry estimated that less than 4,000 civilians were killed and about 15,000 injured between April and October in 2004.

The Lancet journal said last October that about 98,000 civilians had been killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion began in March 2003.

Source: Xinhua