SYDNEY, March 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Making the job tougher for US PR experts to shine up a badly tarnished image, a new poll showed the US reputation has not only been blemished in the eyes of the Arab countries but widely among the peoples of close allies as well.

The survey, by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy, found that more than half of the Australians had a negative view of the United States due to its foreign policies worldwide, The New York Times reported Tuesday, March 29.

That put the United States behind China (69 percent positive), and not even in the overall Top 10 countries, regions or groups that Australians respect, according to the US major daily.

They have a more positive opinion of France (66 percent) and the United Nations (65 percent), according to the poll whose results came out Monday, and was based on interviews with 1,000 Australians, and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, it added.

Asked how concerned they were about a list of potential external threats, 32 percent indicated they were very worried by US foreign policy and 25 percent were fairly worried, Reuters news agency reported.

More than two-thirds of Australians (68 percent) also thought Australia paid too much attention to US views in formulating its foreign policy.

The poll found 51 percent of Australians opposed continued involvement in Iraq, while 46 percent were in favor.

Australia was one of the first nations to join the United States in the controversial invasion of Iraq two years ago and has stood solidly beside Washington ever since.

Last month it announced a 50 percent increase in its deployment despite significant opposition.

Despite an alliance treaty signed with the United States, 72 percent said Australia should not follow the United States into future wars, for instance, with China over Taiwan.

The country’s key strategic alliance, the 1951 ANZUS treaty, commits Australia, New Zealand and the United States to come to each other’s aid in the event of attack.

Canberra invoked the treaty to offer Washington help in the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“Even of those who think our alliance with the United States is very important, fully 57 percent said they opposed joining the United States in the Taiwan Strait,” Lowy Institute executive director Allan Gyngell told Reuters.

And the Australians are evenly divided over whether the greatest threat to the world today comes from American foreign policy or “Islamic fundamentalism.”