While the UN said on Saturday that 703 people perished in the Iraqi bloodshed, The government in Baghdad put the total of the country’s February death toll at 790.

The UN figure, however, excludes the province of Anbar, where government forces remain engaged in a bid to defeat a foreign-backed insurgent group that seized control of the city of Fallujah in Anbar Province.

Iraq has been hit by a surge of violence over the past year, the country’s worst since 2008.

The number of deaths in February is significantly less than January when more than 1,000 people – mostly civilians – were killed in the most deadly month since April 2008.

"The political, social and religious leaders of Iraq have an urgent responsibility to come together in the face of the terrorist threat," UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement on Saturday.

A large proportion of the violence is reportedly concentrated in the six central and northern provinces, with the worst bloodshed taking place in the capital, where 239 people died, according to UN figures.

The Iraqi government, meanwhile, has introduced a number of measures in the hope of curtailing the violence that grips the country.

Last month, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki visited the embattled province of Anbar and pledged to provide military training for tribesmen in the city of Ramadi who cooperate with government forces against the al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Moreover, Maliki and other Iraqi officials has charged that Saudi Arabia is actively involved in financing and supplying the terrorists operating in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

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