Lifetimes in Fe II and the solar abundance of iron

New atomic lifetimes have been determined for eight quartet (z 4D, z 4F) levels and ten sextet (z 6D, z 6F, z 6P) levels in Fe II and the results for seven of these levels have been combined with existing experimental branching fractions to obtain a revised set of log gf-values for 15 solar lines in Fe II. The new log gf data are used together with equivalent widths determined from the Liege solar atlas to derive a value for the iron photospheric abundance: 7.48 +/- 0.04, which is consistent with the currently accepted meteoritic result, 7.51 +/- 0.01. The results are compared with the atomic lifetime data, log gf data and solar analyses used in three other recent solar abundance determinations based on Fe II lines.