London: Post-war Iraq is on its way to reach an unenviable position as it tends to overtake Kashmir as a region with most violent attacks, according to a risk assessment company.

US insurance giant Aon Corp said Iraq ranked fifth on its Global Terrorism Risk Map, which ranks nations by level of terrorist risk, while last year it was not even in the top 40.

The firm scoured scores of public sources to compile a database of terrorist incidents around the world. Kashmir had the greatest number of attacks in the year, followed by the Palestinian territories and Colombia.

Aon ranks countries by number of terrorist incidents, rather than the number of people injured or killed, to give a truer picture of the threat to business.

Based on current projections, Iraq will overtake Kashmir this year, said Martin Stone, a director of Aon's counter-terrorism and political risk division.

Aon said the US-led war on Iraq had increased the frequency of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East. The overall number of attacks worldwide was relatively stable, Stone said, but business confidence has been undermined by such atrocities as last month's bombing of commuter trains in Madrid, which killed almost 200 people.

India ranked fourth on the risk list, with threats from violent separatists, leftist groups and Sikh, Hindu and Islamic extremists.