About 54 overseas students, nearly half of them Indians, died of various causes in Australia last year, but coroners were trying to suppress the details of the deaths, a leading daily in Melbourne reported on Wednesday.

The report in 'The Age', which comes amid a series of racial attacks targeting Indian students in Australia, claimed the toll is higher than the federal government has admitted.

State and territory coroners, under the National Coroners Information System (NCIS), have refused an application by the daily for data on deaths of overseas students in the year to November 2008, the paper said.

A spokeswoman for Victorian Coroner Jennifer Coate said the information would not be made public because it was not exhaustive. "The nationality and occupation of someone who has died is not required to be automatically recorded," she said.

The refusal came after the NCIS previously indicated that the information would be made available, the report said.

In February, under questioning in Parliament, the government said 51 overseas students died in that year, with 34 dying of "unknown" causes. Fourteen cases were cited as accidents and three as death from illness.

But an investigation by 'The Age' has established the death toll is higher than 51 - around 54 - with most coming from India, Korea and China. Nearly half were Indians, the report said adding, Indians were holding one-fifth of the total student visas at that time.

The government numbers showed no suicides, but the real figure is at least three, the daily claimed.

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