More than 500 people died in confrontations between security forces and drug gangs The Mexican government has released new figures suggesting that 34,612 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office four years ago.
The new figure includes civilians and members of the security forces.
Previous reports only listed those with ties to drug gangs, officials said.
President Calderon denounced the “extreme violence” which had made 2010 the deadliest year in recent Mexican history.
The president told a meeting of anti-crime groups that his government “was aware that it was going through a very difficult time on security issues”.
Government security spokesman Alejandro Poire said 15,273 people had been killed in drug-related violence last year.
He said the bulk of the killings had been carried out in the three northern states of Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Sinaloa.
Other states, he explained, had been virtually untouched by the violence, with Yucatan and Tlaxcala registering fewer than 10 crime-related murders in 2010.
Mr Poire said the northern states were particularly badly hit because they were at the centre of a battle between rival drug gangs.
He said the murder rate had dropped by 10% in the fourth quarter of the year, but that there was no way of telling whether the trend would continue in 2011.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.