A majority of Americans support expanding President George W. Bush's declared war on terrorism beyond Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda forces to a military campaign against Iraq, according to an ABC News/Washington Postpoll.
Sixty-one per cent say the war will not be a success unless the United States goes on to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and 72 per cent support US military action to achieve that aim, according to the poll released.
Three-quarters of the respondents also said they supported striking suspected terrorists bases in Yemen, Somalia and Sudan, the poll found.
Ten leading members of Congress recently sent a letter to Mr Bush urging him to make Iraq the next target in the US war on terrorism, saying Baghdad had revived its weapons program in the three years since UN inspectors left.
Some members of the international coalition helping in the hunt for bin Laden have shown reluctance to expand the military action beyond Afghanistan to countries such as Iraq.
On the search for bin Laden, 64 per cent in the poll said the United States must capture or kill him for the US war on terrorism to be a success.