Rome ? More people were put to death last year – 5,628 – than in either of the previous two years, with China alone accounting at least 5,000 executions, an anti-death penalty group reported Thursday.

The Rome-based Hands Off Cain said that while countries are increasingly renouncing the death penalty, the overall number of executions rose because more nations that have capital punishment on their books actually used it in 2006.

In its annual report on the death penalty, Hands Off Cain said the gradual trend of abolishing capital punishment continued, with 51 countries retaining the death penalty compared to 54 in 2005. But it said 27 countries had resorted to the death penalty in 2006, up from 24 in 2005.

“More countries are becoming abolitionists, but where the death penalty remains we see it applied more harshly,” said Elisabetta Zamparutti, the report’s editor.

As a result, the number of executions increased, to at least 5,628 last year compared to 5,494 in 2005 and 5,530 in 2004.

Overall, 146 countries and territories have renounced the death penalty to some extent, either through outright abolition or a moratorium, Hands Off Cain said.

Iran came in second in the group’s top execution rankings. Hands Off Cain said Tehran doubled the number of people it put to death in 2006, executing at least 215 people compared to 113 in 2005, though it said the real number may be even higher.

Pakistan also nearly doubled the number of executions in 2006, putting at least 82 people to death last year compared to 42 the year earlier.

The United States was the only country in the Americas that carried out a death sentence in 2006.

Fifty-three people were executed in the U.S. last year, down from 60 in 2005 and 59 in 2004, the group said.