WASHINGTON -- A year after the invasion of Iraq, the United States faces suspicion abroad about its military efforts to combat terrorism and a growing desire among European nations to match U.S. influence and power in the world.
An international polling project found people in the Muslim-majority countries of Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey are suspicious of the United States and think it is trying to dominate the world and control Mideast oil.
The governments in all four Muslim-majority countries have strong ties with the U.S. government.
A sizable number of people in France, Germany and Russia also have suspicions about the United States' international efforts to fight terrorism, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
The polls were taken in February before the train bombings in Spain that claimed the lives of more than 200 people.
In a surprise defeat, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's conservatives on Sunday became the first government that backed the Bush administration on Iraq to be voted from office.
When people in the nine countries -- including Britain and the United States -- were asked whether the United States' actions were sincere to reduce international terrorism, majorities in France, Germany and the four Muslim-majority countries said they thought not. Almost half in Russia thought the United States was not sincere, while majorities in Britain and the United States said they thought the anti-terror campaign was a sincere effort.
The surveys found considerable cynicism and anger among the Muslim-majority countries a year after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And they found a growing desire among European countries for a balance of power.
"Europeans want to check our power," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. "There's considerable support for making the European Union as powerful as the United States."
People in the surveyed Muslim countries remain angry about U.S. policies -- and are even supportive of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist who took credit for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Almost two-thirds of the poll respondents in Pakistan said they view bin Laden favorably -- a significant finding because U.S. troops are trying to find bin Laden in the mountainous region on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. More than half of those in Jordan and almost half of those polled in Morocco had a favorable view of bin Laden.
Anger toward the United States in these Muslim-majority countries remains very high, Kohut said, though the intensity has dropped a bit since last May.
Madeleine Albright, secretary of state in the Clinton administration, called the findings "depressing."
Appearing on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday, she said she was especially surprised to see that support for the war in Iraq has declined even in Britain, which has been the staunchest ally of the United States there.
She also lamented divisions between the United States and Europe, particularly in the wake of the terrorist attacks against the Spanish train stations, which killed some 200 people and injured hundreds others.
"In order to deal with the longterm issues in the Muslim world," Albright said, "we have to have unity between us and the European world and what has happened is that the Muslims have been able to do something that the communists were not able to do ... which is to divide us."
Majorities in all the countries except Pakistan, and almost half there, thought the United States did not consider the interests of other countries in policy decisions.
At least two-thirds of people living in France, Germany, Russia and Turkey thought it would be a good thing if the European Union becomes as powerful as the United States.
A majority of those in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Turkey thought Western Europe should take a more independent approach to security and diplomatic matters.
In other key findings:
About half of respondents in Pakistan said suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians against Israelis and against U.S. troops in Iraq can be justified. Two-thirds or more in Jordan and Morocco said it can be justified in both situations.
A majority of the people in Pakistan and Jordan said Iraq will be worse off with Saddam Hussein removed from power.
Ratings for the United Nations are relatively high in European countries, and low in the Muslim countries. Just over half in the United States, 55 percent, gave a favorable rating to the U.N.
The polls were conducted between Feb. 19 and March 3. They have margins of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points in Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and the United States. Polls in Britain, France and Germany have a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
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