Poll shows British support for Iraq war falling

British public support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 43 per cent, from 61 per cent at the end of the war in May, according…

British public support for the war in Iraq has dropped to 43 per cent, from 61 per cent at the end of the war in May, according to a poll.

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

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

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

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US President George W Bush got 39 per cent approval among Britons, 15 per cent among the French and 14 per cent among Germans.

In the United States, support for the Iraq war dropped to 60 per cent, from 74 per cent in May. Germans, French and Russians all continued to support their countries' decisions to oppose the war.

Most Britons, 56 per cent, said they wanted Western Europe to be more independent of the United States, and 50 per cent 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 per cent, however, if Europe would have to finance its increased responsibility in international matters.

The poll, taken before last week's train bombings in Madrid that killed 200 people, showed that 63 per cent of Britons favoured the US led fight against terrorism. Just over half said those efforts had been sincere, but 41 per cent thought they were motivated by a desire to control Middle East oil or to dominate the world.