JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- According an FBI report released Monday, the rate of murder and manslaughter in Florida increased 27.9 percent last year, reflecting but far surpassing the national increase of 1.8 percent.

Of 1,129 deaths ruled as murder or manslaughter in the state in 2006, 110 were in the city of Jacksonville.

The FBI found that firearms were used in 67.9 percent of murders in the nation.

The FBI expected, violent crime across the United States rose nearly 2 percent between 2005 and 2006, a slightly higher increase than.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office reported 6,663 violent crimes -- a number that includes homicides, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Robberies and arson also rose in large population centers, but the number of rapes and car thefts dropped, FBI data show.

The new numbers confirm that crime rates continued on a two-year upward trend after a relative lull in violence between 2002 and 2004.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse cast the report as a good news in the effort to combat gangs, guns and violence, pointing out that the rate of crimes per 100,000 people had declined to its lowest level in 30 years.

"While there's encouraging news in the latest crime rates from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, violent crime remains a challenge for some communities," Roehrkasse said in a statement.

The Bush administration has pledged to spend $50 million this year to combat gangs and guns, and is pushing Congress for new laws to let the federal government better investigate and prosecute violent crime.

Overall, violent crime rose by 1.9 percent in 2006 -- slightly higher than the 1.3 percent increase reflected earlier this summer in preliminary FBI data.

A five-year look at crime rates show that the number of murders, robberies, rapes and other violent offenses committed in 2006 is returning to the peak reached in 2002. Crime dropped dramatically after that, the FBI data show.

In 2006, for example, an estimated 1,417,000 violent crimes were committed across the country. That was a sharp rise from the 1,360,000 crimes reported in 2004 and approaches the estimated 1,425,000-mark reached in 2002.

On The Net: FBI's Uniform Crime Report