Iraq executed 230 people from 2005 to 2009 and a further 1,200 have been sentenced to death, a government spokesman said on Tuesday.

Ali al-Dabbagh's remarks were in response to a UN report that said 12,000 people had been sentenced to die in Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion, which the UN has since admitted was a typographical error.

"According to Iraqi judicial reports, there have been a total of 1,254 death sentences, where there is still the option to appeal, and there were 230 executions between 2005 and 2009," he said in a statement.

Iraq's supreme court said in January that the country executed 77 people last year, all of whom were convicted of terrorism-related offences.

In December, London-based human rights group Amnesty International said Iraq had executed at least 120 prisoners in 2009, and a further 900 remained on death row.

In its report, Amnesty urged Baghdad to stop the executions of all people condemned to death, adding "some are likely to have been sentenced after unfair trials."

Baghdad reintroduced the death penalty in 2004, after a brief moratorium immediately after the US-led invasion of 2003. Those sentenced to death are usually hanged.

According to Amnesty, at least 285 people were sentenced to death in Iraq and 34 executed in 2008. In 2007, at least 199 were sentenced and 33 executed.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is an ardent supporter of capital punishment, but President Jalal Talabani opposes its use.

(Source: AFP)