Only 31 percent of the people surveyed by CNN/USA Today/Gallup thought the war was over, against 67 percent who believed it was not -- most of these, however, predicted only minor fighting was left in Iraq.

To declare a victory in Iraq -- as a top US military leader did Thursday -- it was not necessary to apprehend Saddam Hussein or determine conclusively he was dead, poll respondents said.

Similarly, a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that the capture of demise of Saddam was not important in Americans' minds: at 41 percent, it fell behind providing humanitarian assistance (62 percent), restoring civil order (51 percent), finding weapons of mass destruction (47 percent) and helping establish a new government in Iraq (47 percent).

Americans in the Post/ABC poll believed the United Nations rather than the United States should be in charge of rebuilding Iraq (51-41 percent), helping establish a new government (55-39 percent) and maintaining civil orderpercent).

However, a full 73 percent were concerned about the possibility that the United States will get bogged down in a long and costly peacekeeping mission in Iraq, up 11 points from a week ago.

While 58 percent of Americans in the Post/ABC poll believed the war in Iraq would decrease the risk of further terrorism in the United States, 79 percent believed North Korea posed a serious threat to their country and another 65 percent said it was Syria.

Eighty-eight percent in both groups, however, supported using diplomatic or economic pressure to deal with the two rogue nations, while half that number favored using military force.

Both surveys gave US President George W. Bush high marks: 74 percent in the Post/ABC poll, 71 percent in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

For the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 1,011 adults were interviewed by telephone from April 14-16, with a margin of error of plus or minus three points.

The Washington Post/ABC News surveyed 504 adults on Wednesday night and gave a five percentage point margin of error.

SPACE.WIRE