Top US officials plotted revenge Friday for the grisly killings of US civilians in the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah, as the deaths of two soldiers brought the US death toll to 600.

In a statement, the US military said one soldier from the 1st Armored Division had been killed and another wounded in a roadside bomb attack in the Al-Mansur district of Baghdad early Friday. A US Marine died Thursday as "a result of enemy action" in the Al-Anbar province west of Baghdad, the statement added. Those deaths brought the US toll to 600, 408 deaths from hostile fire and 192 non-combat deaths. Well over half of combat deaths, 293, were inflicted since President George W. Bush declared major hostilities over on May 1.

Top US officials vowed publicly to make perpetrators pay for killing four civilians as US media replayed images of two blackened bodies being mutilated and hung from a bridge in Fallujah. "There will be a price extracted, there will be a response and it will be obvious to all," Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters at the State Department. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace briefed the House Armed Services Committee behind closed doors on "potential American reactions" to the killings, committee chairman Duncan Hunter said.

In Fallujah, US Marines manned checkpoints, but held off moving into the city. "First of all, before we go into that city, ... we're going to give the people of Fallujah the opportunity to turn over these criminals back to us," military spokesman Mark Kimmit told Fox television in Iraq. "If not, we're prepared to go in and find them," he said. Pacifying the city would require a combination of "the iron fist and the velvet glove," he said on Friday.

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Fallujah community leaders denounced the mutilations in an apparent bid to stave off US retaliation. "Mutilating bodies is prohibited, whomever these bodies belonged to. God, Islam and the Prophet Mohammed prohibit mutilation," Sheikh Khaled Ahmad told worshippers during Friday prayers in Fallujah, a bastion of anti-US insurgency. Ahmad stopped short of condemning the ambush, however, making it clear that insurgents opposing the US-led occupation could not have been involved in the mutilation. "The City Council held a meeting to condemn the acts of mutilation of the bodies," council president Saadallah al-Rawi said.

While many Fallujah residents expressed dismay at the mutilations, others justified it as a reaction to US military raids on homes and mosques in the town. The deteriorating security situation meanwhile led organizers to postpone the Destination Baghdad Expo fair which was to haved here next week. More than 200 companies from over 26 countries as well as thousands of local companies had registered to attend, said the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry.