(Adds candlelight vigil, paragraphs 10-11)

By Kristin Roberts

WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (Reuters) - The U.S. military death toll in Iraq has reached 3,000, an unwelcome milestone for President George W. Bush who is searching for a way to turn around the unpopular war even if it means sending more troops.

The Web site, www.icasualties.org, on Sunday listed the death of Spec. Dustin R. Donica, 22, on Dec. 28 as previously unreported and said his death, together with that of an unidentified soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Saturday, brought the toll to 3,000.

The mark was reached as Bush weighs options, including a short-term increase in forces of up to 30,000, to help control the deteriorating situation in Iraq where daily violence plagues Baghdad and much of the country.

"Every loss is regretted and there is no special significance to the overall number of casualties," Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros said.

Analysts called 3,000 deaths a major personal tragedy but said it had limited political and military significance. Anti-war activists vowed to use the milestone as a catalyst to press for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

U.S. and Iraqi troops have failed to establish security in Iraq's capital, despite concentrating efforts there, as battles among Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim militias, insurgents and government forces as well as al Qaeda fighters rage.

Bush, at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, mourned the death of the 3,000th U.S. soldier, the White House said, but cautioned war-weary Americans that no quick end to the war was in sight.

BUSH UNDER PRESSURE

The president has been under pressure to change course in Iraq amid widespread public and political discontent. He is expected to unveil his new strategy early next month but has rejected the idea of a timetable for pulling out the 134,000 U.S. troops now in the country.

"The president believes that every life is precious and grieves for each one that is lost," said White House spokesman Scott Stanzel. "He will ensure their sacrifice was not made in vain."

In Santa Monica, California, a group that has erected crosses in the sand for American troops killed in Iraq held a New Year's Eve candlelight memorial to honor the war dead.

"We don't want people to forget the cost of this war," said Chuck Nixon, of Veterans for Peace. "Three thousand families have lost a son or daughter."

December has been the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the past two years, with 111 fatalities. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died in the almost four-year-old war.

Bush has shown little appetite for dramatic changes even after his Republican party's defeat in November elections -- widely regarded as a referendum on his Iraq policy -- which gave control of Congress to Democrats.

Despite the execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on Saturday, Bush said violence in Iraq would not end and warned more U.S. sacrifices lay ahead. The United States would be "fighting violent jihadists" for years to come, the White House said.

Anthony Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the political problems inside Iraq and the incoming Democratic Congress spell bigger trouble for Bush than the 3,000 milestone.

"There is no silver bullet," Cordesman said. "The problem is, however, the current strategy simply cannot work. By the time it (the war plan) comes out, Congress comes into session, no one is going to remember the number 3,000."

United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of more than 1300 groups throughout the United States who have joined together to protest the war, said it was planning a march in Washington on Jan. 27.

"We must bear witness to this tragic milestone," the group said on its Web site. "And ... we must remind others that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men have also died in this outrageous war and occupation."

Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the 3,000 benchmark was not "that huge of a milestone" given what the country had been through already.

"It will however serve to dampen whatever slight boost Saddam's execution may have given the president and the American public," he said. (Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Crawford, Texas, and Jim Wolf and JoAnne Allen in Washington)

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