Soldier Phillip Hewett who was killed in July 2005

Adam Ingram admitted that long delays had caused distress to the families of those who died.

Mr Ingram told the BBC's Panorama programme: "I have not been happy with the wait."

Some 130 personnel have been killed since 2003, but inquests are still to be held into more than a third of them.

The Oxfordshire coroner handles the majority of military deaths because their bodies are flown back to RAF Brize Norton.

I think the pain which is out there is deepened by the length of time that families have to wait Adam Ingram MP, armed forces minister

But a backlog means that more than 50 families are still waiting to hear details of how their relatives died, some as long as three years ago.

"It's something that should have been addressed earlier on," Mr Ingram told Panorama.

"It has now been addressed because I think the pain which is out there is deepened by the length of time that families have to wait."

And he added: "I think we should have acted as a government sooner and better in all of this."

Families' pain

The minister was interviewed for a film about four British soldiers killed in each year of the war in Iraq and the reactions of their relatives to the conflict.

The families are treated like we don't matter. He was a soldier for three years. He was my son for 21 Sue Smith, mother of soldier Phillip Hewett who died in Iraq

Sue Smith's son Phillip Hewett served with the Staffordshire regiment until he was killed in July 2005.

She had to wait 18 months for his inquest. It was finally heard in January.

"The families are treated like we don't matter," she said.

"It's just a soldier. He was a soldier for three years. He was my son for 21.

"I think people have got to realise that it doesn't go away. This is like Groundhog Day. Until that inquest, we don't know anything at all, and some parents have waited three years.

"I think it's absolutely cruel."

Last year, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, which is responsible for the court system, announced it was providing extra resources for the Oxfordshire coroner to try to speed things up.

But even where families have had their inquests, not all are happy with the results.

'Not believable'

Margaret Thomson's son Robert, 22, died in 2004 in what the MoD called "an engineering accident". She refuses to accept their version of events and is preparing to take her case to court.

"I've got statements that were taken under oath and one story conflicts with the other story," she said.

"They change from one month to the next month and when you collate all the information and put it together there's just absolutely no way it's believable."

Sue Smith is also still angry. Her son died in a lightly armoured "snatch" Land Rover which are used because they are less intimidating to local people than tanks.

They are sending people out in vehicles that aren't even fit for the roads here Sue Smith

But she feels the vehicles were unsuitable and is angry the coroner failed to address this.

"They are sending people out in vehicles that aren't even fit for the roads here. They certainly won't withstand a bomb," she said.

"My son did what he could with the tools that he had and I don't blame the Army. The people I blame are the people sitting in Whitehall."

Mr Ingram said it was impossible to solve all of the families' grievances, but insisted it was not because the government lacked compassion.