Kabul - More than 1,000 foreign soldiers died in Afghanistan since late 2001, the internet site icasualties. org said Monday.

According to the organization, which reports on military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, the 1,000-death threshold was crossed Monday when two US soldiers died in a suicide bombing, bringing the total death toll to 1,002.

In 2008, 253 foreign troops died in the country as of Monday, more than in all of 2007 and also more than in any other year since US-led international forces were deployed in Afghanistan in 2001.

In May, the monthly number of casualties in Afghanistan was higher than in Iraq for the first time. Since then, the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan was constantly above Iraq casualty figures.

In September 37 foreign soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, icasualties. org said, while 25 lost their lives in Iraq. August 2008 was the bloodiest month for the international troops since the begin of Operation Enduring Freedom, with 46 fatalities, twice as many as in Iraq.

The number of monthly fatalities in Afghanistan has been constantly rising since 2003.

US troops accounted for almost two-thirds of those killed, or 620. Thirty German soldiers died while serving with the international ISAF forces, as did 97 Canadians, 121 British soldiers or 13 Italian troops.

In Iraq, more than 4,500 foreign soldiers died since March 2003, more than 90 per cent of them from the US. (dpa)