- - LONDON (Reuters) - The British public sees President
Bush as a greater threat to world peace than Iraq's Saddam Hussein, a poll
published on Tuesday showed.
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- It also believes that as long as United Nations weapons
inspectors can do a useful job in Iraq, it would be wrong for the United
States and Britain to attack. However, Britons say something has to be
done about Saddam and suspect he is determined to hide his weapons of mass
destruction from U.N. inspectors.
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- The poll, commissioned by Channel 4 Television, asked
1,000 people whether they believed Bush was a greater threat to world peace
than Saddam. Forty-five percent agreed while 38 percent disagreed.
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- Two-thirds of those polled said it would be wrong to
attack Iraq while inspectors felt they still had a useful job to do.
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- However, 64 percent of respondents said they agreed with
Prime Minister Tony Blair's claim that "if the international community
fails to act firmly now against Iraq, then the world will become a more
dangerous place in years to come." Only 24 percent disagreed.
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- Those polled were also asked for their views on the following
statement: "Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass
destruction, and to hide as many as possible from the United Nations arms
inspectors." Two thirds agreed with the statement while one in five
disagreed.
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- Blair has wholeheartedly supported Washington's campaign
to rid Iraq of banned chemical and biological weapons. Iraq denies it has
such weapons.
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- The British Prime Minister has struggled to convince
the public of his case, and has faced serious dissent from members of his
ruling Labour Party.
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- A poll conducted by Channel 4 in November produced similar
results, with Bush seen as a bigger threat to world peace than the Iraqi
President.
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