  Fe II radiative lifetimes were measured applying the time-resolved nonlinear
laser-induced fluoresence technique. We investigated 21 levels of up to 47000
1/cm. The uncertainties are typically 2-3%. The lifetimes provide an improved
absolute scale to our branching fractions which were measured with a Fourier
transform spectrometer and a high-resolution grating spectrometer and which
have been published earlier. We report absolute transition probabilities of 140
Fe II lines in the wavelength range 220-780 nm. The overall uncertainties are
estimated to be 6% for the strong and up to 26% for the weak transitions. The
results are compared with recent experimental data from the literature. Our
large set of accurate data can be used for a reliability check of theoretical
data calculated for iron abundances in astrophysical plasmas.
