Americans for troop pull-out: poll

Washington: Six out of 10 Americans support setting a timetable for pulling US troops out of Iraq, even though a clear majority predict civil war there if US forces withdraw next year, according to a poll published on Wednesday.

The USA Today/Gallup poll also found a majority of Americans expect terrorist attacks on the United States regardless of whether US forces pull out in 2008.

"Six in 10 support setting a timetable for withdrawal and sticking to it regardless of what's happening in Iraq," USA Today said. Thirty-six percent said US troops should stay until the situation in Iraq improved.

Only 22 percent of those polled agreed with the administration argument that US forces in Iraq are preventing new terrorist attacks on the United States, the paper said.

Seventeen percent said the US deployment made a terrorist attack more likely, and 58 percent said it had no effect either way, it said.

Asked how much they would be bothered if the United States was viewed as having lost the war in Iraq, 55 percent said a great deal or modestly, and 43 percent said not much or not at all.

The poll of 1,010 adults taken Friday to Sunday has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, the paper said.