[Rolo]

The highlights of the Iraq survey are as follows:

• Overall, 70% of Iraqis say that their life these days is good, compared with 29% who say their life is bad.

• Compared with just before the war in 2003, 57% of Iraqis now say their life is better overall, compared with 19% who say it is worse and 23% who say it is about the same.

• 71% of Iraqis expect their lives to be better in a year from now, compared with 6% who expect life to be worse and 9% who say life will remain about the same.

• Half of Iraqis (49%) believe the invasion of Iraq by the US-led coalition was right, compared with 39% who thought it was wrong.

• Opinion was evenly split on whether the invasion humiliated Iraq (41%) or liberated it (42%). Almost one in five respondents (17%) refused to comment.

• Asked about conditions where they lived, 69% said the availability of jobs was bad and 64% said the same about the electricity supply. 72% said conditions in local schools were good but respondents were evenly split on the whether the local security situation, supply of clean water and availability of medical care was good or bad.

• In terms of the top three priorities in Iraq over the next 12 months, regaining public security rated by far the highest (85%), followed by holding elections for a national government (30%), ensuring the majority of Iraqis can make a decent living (30%) and reviving the economy (28%).

• Among those who had heard of them, Iraq's religious leaders scored the highest level of confidence (70%). But they were closely followed by the police (68%) and then by the new Iraqi army (56%). At the other end of the scale, only 25% expressed confidence in the US/UK occupation forces and 28% in both Iraq's political parties and the Coalition Provisional Authority.

• When asked about what Iraq needs at this time, whilst 86% answered "an Iraqi democracy", 81% also mentioned "a single strong Iraqi leader".

• In terms of the future structure of Iraq, 79% wanted "one unified Iraq with central government in Baghdad", compared with 14% who wanted regional governments with a federal government in Baghdad. Only 4% favoured dividing Iraq into separate independent states.

• When asked what political actions by other people would be acceptable, whilst the overwhelming majority of respondents thought any violence was unacceptable, some 17% said attacks on coalition forces would be acceptable, 14% said the same about attacks on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and 10% thought attacks on foreigners working alongside the CPA would be acceptable.

• In terms of the continuing presence of the coalition forces in Iraq, 39% of respondents supported their presence, compared with 51% who were opposed to it.

• As for what would be most effective in improving security in Iraq, 96% said that creating jobs would be most effective, 93% said training and hiring more Iraqi local police and 87% said transferring all political authority to an Iraqi government.

• Whilst 15% said the coalition forces should leave Iraq immediately, 36% said they should remain until an Iraqi government was in place and a further 18% said "until security is restored".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressrele...raq_polls.shtml