What is fastest approach to get count of list items ? I need to do something like select (*) from table

Hi All,

I have implemented paging on huge list. Grid gets shown 20 items per page but I have to show on grid pager a total count of items. Moreover filters could be applied to the grid. So, total count will depend from filter criteria. What is best approach to do something similar to SQL select count (*) from sometable  on SharePoint list?

Oleg