US soldier killed is 2,999th death

A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in southeastern Baghdad on Saturday, the US military said in a statement, becoming the 2,999th member of the US military to die in Iraq since the invasion of 2003.

The soldier was also the 110th to die so far last month, the deadliest month for the US forces in more than two years.

Amid rising US casualties, US President George W. Bush is under pressure to present a timetable for the withdrawal of troops who his critics say are bogged down in Iraq. Mr Bush has spent much of the holiday period consulting his closest aides and has promised to announce a new direction in Iraq early in the new year.

The US statement said the soldier, whose name was withheld, was killed when a roadside bomb hit his patrol in the southeast of the capital. Two more soldiers were wounded.

Hundreds of Iraqis are killed every week in sectarian violence which is threatening to pitch Iraq into full-scale civil war.