Baghdad's central morgue received 1,595 bodies last month, the most since the bombing of a Shia shrine in February prompted a wave of sectarian killings.

Doctor Abdul Razzaq al-Obaidi, the morgue assistant manager, said on Wednesday that the tally for June compared with the 1,375 bodies the morgue received in May and 1,155 in April.

"June is the highest month in terms of receiving cases of violence since Samarra," he said.

Most of the bodies had gunshot wounds to the head, he said, a common feature of sectarian, execution-style killings.

Iraq's health, interior and defence ministries consistently provide lower figures than those released by the morgue.

The figures show that the level of violence in Iraq has increased even after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, in a US air strike on June 7.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Iraq, said on Tuesday that the death of Zarqawi had not improved security.

Zarqawi was blamed for a campaign of car bombs and suicide attacks that US and Iraqi officials said was aimed at starting civil war among Shia and Sunnis in Iraq.

Sectarian tension has been simmering since the attack on the Golden Mosque of Samarra, which US and Iraqi officials blamed on al-Qaeda.

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US soldier Paul Ray Smith. (AP)