The figures compiled by the health, interior and defence ministries showed that 352 Iraqis -- 211 civilians, 96 police and 45 soldiers -- died as a result of attacks in February. The figure represents an 80 percent increase over January's toll of 196 dead.

The February death toll is around 40 percent higher than the same month last year.

In addition, 684 people were wounded, including 414 civilians, 155 police and 115 soldiers, according to the figures. A total of 52 insurgents were killed in February, and 661 were arrested.

The release of the figures comes less than a week before legislative polls across Iraq on March 7, which security officials have warned could be targeted by insurgent groups and Al-Qaeda.

National Security Adviser Safa Hussein told AFP in an interview on Sunday that Iraqi security forces had found and prevented at least 10 vehicle bombs in the past month as Al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups sought to target the elections.

The majority of those bombs, which would cause "very major damage," were targeting Baghdad, he said.

Of the groups seeking to strike in the period surrounding the elections, "AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) attacks are the most direct and serious security threat."

"Al-Qaeda will try to target the whole process, but we do think that it doesn't have the capacity to reach its goals," Hussein said.

"Maybe they will try to influence the results of the election considerably, and we think they don't have this capability either. Maybe they can carry out some operations that damage some innocent people."

A series of attacks targeting the Shiite religious mourning ceremony of Arbaeen in Baghdad and the holy shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq accounted for more than 100 dead alone last month.

On February 1, a female suicide bomber blew herself up among a crowd of Shiite pilgrims at a rest station south of Baghdad, killing 41 people including women and children. The pilgrims had been on their way to Karbala by foot.

Two days later, a suicide attacker ploughed a bomb-laden vehicle into pilgrims on the outskirts of Karbala, killing 23 people.

And on February 5, 41 Shiite pilgrims were killed by a bombing on the last day of Arbaeen.

Arbaeen marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the slaying of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam's most revered figures, by the armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680 AD.

Five American soldiers died in Iraq last month, one in combat and four in non-combat related incidents, according to the independent website www.icasualties.org.

In total, 4,380 American troops have died in Iraq since the US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein from power in 2003.

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