US-backed Iraqi govt losing support: Survey

The survey brought unwelcome news for the Bush administration as it fights to build stability before elections in January. It also indicated that Iraqis are most strongly influenced by their religious, rather than secular, leaders.

The survey, carried out at the end of September, showed popular support for interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi dropped more than 20 percentage points since July. Washington formally handed sovereignty to Iraq at the end of June.

Just over 45 percent of those surveyed said Allawi had been effective since taking office in June, down from over 66 percent in July, and support for his government plummeted from 62 percent to 43 percent over the same period.

The survey was carried out by the International Republican Institute, a government-funded body that promotes democracy around the world and which is helping oversee efforts to build political parties in Iraq.

It found religious leaders carry more political weight than tribal leaders, the government or political parties with potential Iraqi voters.

The Washington Post, reporting figures not publicly released by the institute, said the survey also found that the most popular politician in Iraq was Abdel Aziz Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Fifty-one percent said they want him in the national assembly, which will pick a new government.

Allawi was second, with 47 percent of Iraqis supporting him for a seat in the new parliament if elections were held now, and rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was a close third, with 46 percent, the newspaper said. An institute spokesman would not confirm the Post figures.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has rejected a request from Iraqi leaders to train some 30 judges and prosecutors who would be trying former President Saddam Hussein, in part because Baghdad has the death penalty, a UN spokesman said Friday.

The request was made to Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal on the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, but UN Secretary General Annan turned it down, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.