Rome  - A global trend towards abolition of the death penalty continued in 2007 with the number of countries practising capital punishment dropping to 49 from 51 in the previous year, but the number of executions worldwide increased, according to a report released Thursday.

The Rome-based anti-death penalty group, Hands Off Cain, presented its findings in the 2008 edition of its annual report which covers the first six months of the year and
2007.

At least 5,851 executions were carried out in 2007 up from the 5,635 registered in 2006 and 5,494 in 2005, the report said.

The surge was "in large part" due to the increased number of executions in Iran, up by one-third, and Saudi Arabia where the number of people executed quadrupled, it said.

China put to death at least 5,000 people, accounting for 85.4 per cent of the world total.

Iran, which executed least 355 people, and Saudi Arabia 166, filled the other top three places of what the report called the "terrible podium" of capital-punishment practising countries.

Other countries where the number of people executed numbered more than 10 included Pakistan, with at least 134, the United States where 42 people were put to death, Iraq with at least 33, Vietnam with at least 25, Yemen and Afghanistan, both with at least 15, and North Korea with at least 13.

The report noted how the "prevalent situation worldwide" including China, Vietnam, Belarus and Mongolia, was for governments to conceal the number of executions, making it difficult to provide exact figures.

"It points to the fact that the fight against the death penalty entails, beyond the stopping of executions, a battle for democracy, for the respect of the rule of law and for political rights and civil liberties," the report said.

Asia remained the region where the vast majority of executions are carried out, while the Americas "would be practically death-penalty free were it not for the United States, the only country on the continent to execute anyone in 2007," the report noted.

In Africa, the death penalty was carried out in seven countries - Botswana (at least one), Egypt (actual number unknown), Ethiopia (one), Equatorial New Guinea (three), Libya (at least nine), Somalia (at least five) and Sudan (at least seven).

"In Europe, the only blemish on an otherwise completely death penalty-free zone continues to be Belarus, where at least one person was executed in 2007 and three in the first five months of 2008," the report said.

In 2007 and in the first six months of 2008 nine countries moved from retention to a form of abolition of the death penalty.

Rwanda went from retentionist to abolitionist in July of 2007 with a law that abolished the death penalty for all crimes while Kyrgyzstan abolished the death penalty in January 2007, after years of moratorium.

Uzbekistan went from retentionist to abolitionist on January 1, 2008.

These moves were partly offset by the resumption of executions in Afghanistan and Ethiopia after several years of suspension, the report said.

Hands Off Cain hailed the December 2007 adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution that calls upon all member states that still maintain the death penalty to establish a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing them.

The group announced it had bestowed its "Abolitionist of the Year 2008" award on former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, who during his time in office led a campaign to bring the resolution before the UN General Assembly. (dpa)