Hundreds killed in Iraq, says US
US-led forces in Iraq have issued new casualty figures confirming that the country has seen the bloodiest period of fighting since Saddam Hussein fell.
US Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said about 70 coalition troops had been killed in Iraq since 1 April, while casualties among insurgents were 10 times as high.
He said there were no reliable figures for civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, the Iraq hostage crisis has widened, with seven Chinese seized near the flashpoint town of Falluja.
The latest kidnappings follow the seizure of three Japanese citizens whose fate remains unknown.
Despite the hostage-taking, a tentative truce between American-led forces and Sunni insurgents in Falluja seems to be holding after more than 24 hours.
Gen Kimmitt, the coalition's deputy director of operations, said US marines remained ready for the "complete destruction of enemy forces", but a political solution was being sought.
Local hospital officials in Falluja say the violence has left more than 600 Iraqis dead, most of them civilians. The US military says almost all the casualties were fighters.
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Baghdad says residents of Falluja are using the break in the fighting to bury their dead and flee the town.
Attacks rise
The US military has rejected suggestions that the Falluja offensive amounted to "collective punishment" of civilians as well as insurgents.
"Collective punishment is imposed on the people of Falluja by those terrorists and cowards that hunker down inside mosques, hospitals and schools and use women and children as shields," Gen Kimmitt told a news conference in Baghdad.
He acknowledged that during the past week, attacks on coalition forces had been running at two to three times the average rate.
He said the level had reached 50 to 70 attacks per day.
In other developments:
Iraqi police reportedly regained control of the central city of Najaf under a deal with militiamen loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr. But the US said it had no knowledge of such a deal and that Najaf was still under Mr Sadr's control
A Romanian working for a security company was killed and another wounded near Baghdad on Sunday when gunmen opened fire on their convoy, said Romania's ambassador to Iraq
Three US marines were killed in fighting on Sunday in Anbar province west of Baghdad, a military statement said; at least three US soldiers were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad and Tikrit
Two Iraqi policemen were reported killed and two others wounded by a roadside bomb in Baquba
In Hilla, a policemen was said to have been killed and two others wounded when gunmen shot at their car
Click here for a map of the flashpoints
The ceasefire in Falluja remained "tenuous", because some attacks by insurgents had continued, Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez told a news conference.
He said talks with local militants on a lasting truce had not gone beyond "initial discussions", adding: "We are not negotiating at this point."
More foreigners seized
It is not clear what the seven Chinese men detained late on Sunday were doing in Iraq.
Chinese sources say they were farmers and fishermen from Fujian province in south-east China and did not work for the government.
The Chinese authorities have appealed for their release.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Beijing says the abductions make little sense to most Chinese, since China opposed the US-led war and has no troops in Iraq.
OTHER FOREIGN HOSTAGES
Nabil George Razuq, 30, Palestinian aid worker
Fadi Ihsan Fadel, 33, Canadian aid worker
Thomas Hamill, 43, US civilian worker
Our correspondent says some have suggested that the abductors may have mistakenly thought the men were Japanese or Korean, two countries that are part of the US-led coalition.
Japan, on the other hand, has 550 troops in Iraq carrying out humanitarian work, and the kidnappers have threatened to burn the three Japanese hostages alive unless the soldiers are withdrawn.
Demand
The kidnappings have overshadowed the visit of US Vice President Dick Cheney to East Asia.
His meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday was dominated by the hostage crisis.
Photos and profiles of the Japanese hostages in Iraq
In pictures
"We wholeheartedly support the position the prime minister has taken with respect to the question of the Japanese hostages," Mr Cheney told reporters afterwards.
Meanwhile, the deadline given by kidnappers of US civilian Thomas Hamill, who threatened to kill him unless US troops ended the Falluja operation, passed with no indication of his fate.
Australian TV has shown pictures of Mr Hamill taken hostage by fighters outside Baghdad after an attack on a convoy taking fuel to US troops.
British civilian Gary Teeley, who was kidnapped in the southern city of Nasiriya a week ago, has been handed over to coalition forces there and is safe and well, the Foreign Office in London said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3620109.stm
