Third of Europe see US as threat to stability: poll

AFP | July 3, 2007

More Europeans see the United States as a threat to global stability than Iran and North Korea combined, according to a poll published Monday.

The Harris Interactive survey for the Financial Times showed that 32 percent of more than 5,000 respondents in five European countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- regarded the United States as the biggest threat to stability.

China was next on the list, thought of as the greatest threat by 19 percent of European respondents, followed by Iran at 17 percent, Iraq at 11 percent, North Korea at nine percent, and Russia at five percent.

The FT said the poll findings were consistently reflected in 11 monthly polls between July 2006 and last month in which the percentage of respondents who regarded the United States as a threat ranged between 28 percent and 38 percent.

By contrast, a quarter of American respondents regarded North Korea as the biggest threat, followed by Iran as 23 percent, China at 20 percent, and the United States itself at 11 percent.

More than 1,000 people were surveyed online in each of the six countries every month between July 2006 and last month by Harris Interactive for the poll.