* UNHCR says Sweden plans to deport 25 Iraqis on Wednesday
* Agency against deportations to volatile central Iraq
* Swedish immigration minister defends stance
GENEVA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The U.N. refugee agency denounced on Tuesday Sweden's plans to deport 25 Iraqis, saying their lives would be endangered in their native central provinces including Baghdad.
Sweden plans to fly back the Iraqis, including some Christians and a Turkman, on Wednesday despite long-standing UNHCR guidelines that rejected asylum-seekers should not be returned for now as they could face violence or abuses, it said.
"We understand that a number of those scheduled for return belong to religious and ethnic groups targeted by violence in Iraq," Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told a news briefing.
"We believe that the recent deterioration in the situation of minorities in Iraq has not been adequately taken into account," she said.
Fifty-two people were killed last October when gunmen stormed a Syrian Catholic cathedral in Baghdad. Al-Qaeda-linked militants threatened to step up attacks on Iraqi Christians during the Christmas period. Two people were killed and at least 16 wounded in a series of bomb attacks on Dec. 30 [ID:nLDE6BT1AO].
Iraq's Christians once numbered about 1.5 million but are now believed to have fallen to less than 850,000 out of a population of about 30 million.
Swedish authorities rejected the claims of the 25 Iraqis in 2008 and 2009, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which called on Sweden to review the cases.
"Sweden gives shelter to those who need it, but it also must be able to say no to those people who do not meet the requirements," Swedish Immigration Minister Tobias Billstrom told Reuters in Stockholm on Tuesday.
He said that cases were decided on an individual basis in court.
People who wanted to stay in Sweden had to prove they faced a specific threat. A general threat picture to a particular region or group was not enough, he added.
Four European countries -- Britain, Denmark, Norway and Sweden -- deported a total of 413 Iraqis in 2010 and 51 so far this year, according to UNHCR.
The agency, which upholds the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, has repeatedly warned about dangers in the central provinces of Baghdad, Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh and Salahuddin. (Additional reporting by Patrick Lannin in Stockholm (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Myra MacDonald)
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