France was the only country where a majority (58%) feels the EU would do better to address global threats alone.

Of those Europeans who feel the EU should take greater responsibility, top support was for more money on aid for development (84%), the use of trade to influence other countries (74%), and committing troops for peacekeeping missions (68%).

There was little support (20%) for committing troops for combat missions. Few Europeans support combat operations in Afghanistan now or against Iran in the future, the annual Transatlantic Trend survey published on Thursday (6 September) showed.

The survey polled about 13,000 people in 12 European countries - Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey and the UK – as well as in the US.

Europeans Blame Bush and Turkey feels isolated

US president George Bush's foreign policy attracted disapproval ratings of 77 percent of Europeans and 60 percent of Americans. Some 34 percent of Europeans blamed Mr Bush himself and 38 percent blamed the US management of the Iraq war for a deterioration in transatlantic relations.

Only 4 percent named the treatment of terrorism suspects at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba a reason.

Turkish respondents expressed a decline in positive feelings toward both the EU and the US since similar polls in previous years. Forty percent of Turks said they viewed EU membership as a good thing, a drop of 14 percentage points since last year's survey.

When asked how likely it is that Turkey will join the EU, 56% of EU citizens asked felt it is likely that Turkey will join, compared with only 26% of Turkish respondents who agreed.

The margin of error for the survey, which conducted interviews by telephone and in person during June, was plus or minus three percentage points.