December 1, 2004 - Seventy-one US troops were killed in the offensive led by US Marines to take control of the Iraqi city Fallujah from insurgents, the US military has said.

The toll was 20 higher than previously reported.

Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim city of 300,000 people 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the initial US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The Fallujah offensive caused more than half of the total US military fatalities in Iraq in November, the second-deadliest month of the 20-month war.

According to Pentagon figures released on Wednesday, 134 US troops died in Iraq in November, one shy of the previous worst month, April 2004.

Lieutenant Col Steve Boylan, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, said 71 US troops were killed in Fallujah during the offensive launched on November 8.

The previous official tally was 51, given by Marine Corps Lieutenant General John Sattler on November 18.

Thousands of US troops, along with US-trained Iraqi government soldiers, stormed into Fallujah three weeks ago in an assault intended to deprive insurgents of a safe haven from which American officials said rebels had coordinated a spree of killings, bombings and kidnappings.

The US military has estimated that 1,200 to 1,600 insurgents were killed in the offensive.

The Iraqi government says over 2000 people were killed during the offensive.