Updated 9:15 AM ET December 29, 1999

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.N. economic sanctions imposed on Iraq since 1990 have killed more than 1.25 million people, newspapers published Wednesday quoted a Health Ministry source as saying.

"The death rate for all ages from August 1990, the date when the unjust sanctions were imposed, totaled 1,250,901 cases (until now)," the source was reported as saying.

The source said the number included 502,492 below the age of five. He said the infant mortality rate amounted to 108 cases for every 1,000 deliveries.

He also said 296 pregnant women had died out of every 100,000 births and that such incidents are attributed to diseases such as respiratory inflammation, diarrhea, intestine inflammation, malnutrition, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.

The United Nations imposed sanctions against Iraq after Baghdad's troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a report in August this year that deaths among under-fives had doubled over the past decade in central and southern areas controlled by the government.

Iraq blames sanctions while the United States blames Baghdad for the sharp rise in deaths.

The United States, eager to maintain pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, issued a report in September this year accusing him of deliberately starving his own people.

Baghdad dismissed the charge, saying Washington was lying.