British support for Iraq war tumbles

British public support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 43%, from 61% last May at the end of that war, according to a poll released tonight.

The Pew Global Attitudes Project survey found, however, that a slight majority of Britons, 51%, viewed British Prime Minister Tony Blair favourably.

He got higher ratings in the United States (75%) and lower ones in France, Germany and Russia (35, 33 and 36%, respectively).

But 41% of Britons thought Mr Blair had lied about weapons of mass destruction.

President George Bush got 39% approval among Britons, 15% among the French and 14% among Germans.

In the United States, support for the Iraq war dropped to 60%, from 74% in May.

Germans, French and Russians all continued to support their countries’ decisions to oppose the war, by 86, 88 and 88% respectively.

Most Britons, 56%, said they wanted Western Europe to be more independent of the United States, and 50% said they thought a European Union equal in power to the United States would be good.

The poll, conducted by the Washington-based group, found that a majority of people in Germany, France and Russia shared those views.

British support for a more powerful EU dropped to 41%, however, if Europe would have to finance its increased responsibility in international matters.

Most Americans surveyed, 55%, preferred a close US-European partnership, not a more independent Europe, and 50% felt that an EU as powerful as the United States would be bad.

Only the French, among the countries surveyed, felt that the world would be safer if another country were as powerful as the United States, with 54% expressing that view.

Just under half of Britons (43%) felt that would make the world more dangerous.

In Germany, France and Britain, views of the United States were less positive than they had been in May at the end of the Iraq war, but more positive than a year ago, when that war started.

In Germany and France, however, more people held negative than positive views of the United States.

A majority in each country held favourable views of the American people, as distinct from the US government.

Most Americans, 73%, viewed Britain favourably, while 12% held unfavourable views of the country.

Those figures compare with 50% of Americans who held favourable views of Germany, but just 33% who held favourable views of France and 39% with positive views of the EU.

Britons expressed confidence in the United Nations, with 64% giving it a favourable rating.

That compares with favourable ratings from 55% of Americans, 71% of Germans, 67% of the French and 60% of Russians.

And 82% of Britons thought the UN best suited to help form a stable Iraqi government, as did 82% in France and 84% in Germany.

Britons were divided on the claims by British and US officials that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, with 48% saying the leaders were misinformed and 41% saying they lied.

Half of Britons felt the Iraq war had hurt the fight against terrorism.

Just 30% of people surveyed in Britain felt the coalition was doing a good job of rebuilding Iraq, but Britons, like other Western Europeans and Americans, felt strongly that Iraqis would be better off in the long run because of Saddam Hussein’s ouster.

The poll, taken before last week’s train bombings in Madrid that killed 200 people, showed that 63% of Britons favoured the US led fight against terrorism.

Just over half said those efforts had been sincere, but 41% thought they were motivated by a desire to control Middle East oil or to dominate the world.