The war in Iraq has increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks around the world and U.S.-led coalition troops should withdraw from the Middle Eastern nation, according to the majority of people polled in 35 countries in a British Broadcasting Corp. survey.

About 60 percent of 41,856 people questioned from Argentina and Afghanistan to the U.S. and Zimbabwe said they thought the terrorism threat had increased as a result of the March 2003 invasion and subsequent war, compared with 12 percent who said attacks were less likely, according to results published today on the Web site of GlobeScan, which coordinated the poll.

``Citizens worldwide think Western leaders have made a fundamental mistake in their war on terror by invading Iraq,'' GlobeScan President Doug Miller said in a statement on the pollster's Web site.

President George W. Bush ordered the attack on Iraq because he said the regime of dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes on New York and Washington forced the U.S. to change its defense policy to include preemptive action against groups or countries that pose a threat.

In 20 countries, there was overall support for a coalition withdrawal from Iraq in the next few months, with six countries divided on the issue and nine saying troops should remain until the nation is stable.

U.S. and U.K.

In the U.S., which has a force of about 130,000 in Iraq, 58 percent of those polled said troops should stay, as opposed to 36 percent who favor a withdrawal. In the U.K., which has 8,000 soldiers in the conflict, 56 percent said troops should remain. In Iraq, the population was split, with 49 percent on either side of the divide.

Respondents in 21 nations said they would support the continuation of foreign troops in Iraq on the condition the Iraqi government requested the forces remain.

``Short of the Iraqi government asking them to stay longer, people think the troops should leave,'' Miller said.

Bush has said the U.S. will withdraw troops once Iraqi forces are trained and able to take charge of their country's security. As of Feb. 20, a total of 232,100 members of Iraq's security forces, including police, soldiers and highway patrol officers, have been trained and equipped, according to the U.S. State Department's most recent weekly status report for Iraq.

Three-quarters of Iraqis said they thought the terrorism threat had increased as a result of the war, compared with 55 percent of Americans. In Britain and Spain, which have both been the targets of deadly bombings since the war, 77 percent and 79 percent, respectively, thought the threat had increased.

Terrorist Attacks

On July 7 last year, London was the site of Western Europe's first suicide attacks, when four bombers killed themselves and 52 other people on the capital's transportation system. Almost two- thirds of Britons surveyed in an ICM Ltd. poll in the days after the attacks said they thought the bombings were linked to Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision to take part in the Iraq war.

Train bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004, killed 191 people and injured more than 1,500. Al-Qaeda claimed the attack in a videotape issued three days later, saying the bombings were a response to Spain's support for Bush and the Iraq invasion.

In Egypt, where bombings in the Sinai Peninsula killed 34 in Taba in 2004 and 64 in Sharm el-Sheikh last year, 83 percent of respondents said they thought the threat of terrorism had increased as a result of the war.

The survey was conducted for the BBC World Service by different polling companies around the world, and coordinated by GlobeScan together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes. Polling was carried out from October 2005 through January 2006, and the margin of error per country varies from 2.5 to 4 percentage points, according to GlobeScan.