Forty-eight percent of Canadians support and 48 percent oppose the US-led military action in Iraq, which is entering its third week, according to the poll by Ipsos-Reid/CTV/The Globe and Mail released late Sunday.

In English-speaking Canada, a slight majority (54 percent) of Canadians outside of Quebec express approval of the war, compared to just three in ten in the French-speaking province.

Canada refused to back the war, saying it would only support military action there if it were approved by the United Nations.

A poll conducted by the same organizations some two weeks ago showed 59 percent of Canadians backed Ottawa's decision to stay out of the war after seeing initial images of it.

Asked if Canada should, now that the military action has begun, offer help to the US-led coalition, a small majority of Canadians (51 percent) expressed support such a move, the new poll said.

This compares to a poll two weeks ago that showed 45 percent supported helping its closest ally after initially staying out of the action. Fifty-three percent opposed such an action in the March 29 poll.

The latest poll of 1,001 respondents, conducted between April 1 and April 3, has a 3.1-percentage-point margin of error.

SPACE.WIRE