Geneva ? The number of Iraqis seeking asylum in industrialized countries rose dramatically last year, but the flow remains far lower than it was before the U.S.-led invasion ousted Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, the U.N. refugee agency said Friday.

Some 22,000 Iraqis applied for asylum in Europe, North America and other industrialized areas in 2006, a 77 percent increase from the previous year and the highest since the invasion began.

Still, that number falls far short of the 50,000 Iraqis who filed asylum claims in industrialized countries in 2002, the last year before the invasion, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

The sharp increase in asylum applications from Iraq contrasts with the general trend around the world, where applications fell by 10 percent, according to the latest statistics.

About 303,400 refugees applied for asylum last year in the 50 industrialized countries monitored by UNHCR, compared with 338,300 in 2005. The agency said it was the fifth consecutive year the numbers fell, leading to a decrease of more than 50 percent across the period.