Damascus  - Hundreds of Iraqi refugees in Syria will return home on October 4 in the latest of a series of repatriations as violence declines in Iraq, an Iraqi embassy source said Thursday.

Iraq's government, which will fund the trip, has encouraged Iraqis who fled after the US-led invasion to return. It is funding air tickets and giving each refugee 500 US dollars, the source said.

Hundreds of Iraqi refugees already left Syria by land a couple of months ago. October's repatriation will be the first by air, the source said.

Iraq's government has also said it will compensate Iraqis who lost their homes and properties in the invasion or as a result of the sectarian strife that followed.

Syria says it took in about a million Iraqi refugees since the war. The UNited Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated the number of displaced Iraqis to be 4.4 million as a result of the 2003 invasion.

Some 2.2 million fled to neighbouring countries like Jordan, Syria and Egypt, while the remaining 2.2 million were internally displaced, it said. (dpa)