Troops in Nigeria have been sent to patrol the central city of Jos, after days of violence between Muslim and Christian mobs sparked by local election results.

There were conflicting reports of the number killed, but violence appeared to have died down on Sunday, with soldiers patrolling on foot and in jeeps to enforce a 24-hour curfews in the worst-hit areas.

Riots between rival ethnic and religious groups broke out last week after electoral workers failed to publicly post local election results.

Residents brought more bodies to the city's main mosque on Sunday, but there were conflicting reports as to the death toll from the clashes.

Murtala Sani Hashim, who has been registering the dead as they are brought to the mosque, told the Reuters news agency he had listed 367 bodies and more were arriving.

A doctor at one of the city's main hospitals said he had received 25 corpses and 154 injured since the unrest began.

"Gunshot wounds, machete injuries, those are the two main types," Dr Aboi Madaki, director of clinical services at Jos University Teaching Hospital, said.

Toll disputed

But officials said that only 200 people had been killed in the clashes.

"Official figures released by the police so far indicate that about 200 people are dead," Nuhu Gagara, the Plateau State information minister, said.

"This figure is just preliminary, as a search and rescue committee has been inaugurated by the government to go around the city and recover dead bodies."

Gagara said that police had arrested 500 people on Saturday alone carrying "all sorts of lethal weapons".

Homes, churches and mosques were burnt down in the rioting, fuelled by rumours that the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost the elections to the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

'Political' rivals

The ANPP is considered a predominantly Muslim party, while the PDP is mainly Christian. The city of Jos itself sits between Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south.

"The PDP provided an all-Christian ticket. They started the trouble because they couldn't win," Samaila Abdullahi Mohammed, a spokesman for the imam at the main mosque, said.

The Red Cross said around 7,000 people had fled their homes and were sheltering in government buildings, an army barracks and religious centres.

Nigeria's 140 million people are roughly equally split between Muslims and Christians. Displaced people from both religions sheltered together in impromptu camps around Jos.

Jos, the administrative capital of Nigeria's Plateau state, was the scene of a week of violence between Christians and Muslims in September 2001.

The violence is the worst since Umaru Yar Adua's inauguration as Nigeria's president in May 2007.