STOCKHOLM, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Sweden's government refused last month to grant the majority of Iraqi asylum seekers permission to stay in the Scandinavian country, Radio Sweden reported on Monday.

    A total of 72 percent of all applications were rejected by the Swedish Immigration Board in February with merely 23 percent being approved, the radio said.

    This means that the brunt of the around 11,000 Iraqis who are still waiting for their cases to be reviewed, are likely to be sent back to Iraq.

    The immigration board has ruled recently that Iraqi applications should be reviewed on the fact that there was no ongoing armed conflict in Iraq anymore.