'Blair's foreign policy makes UK a target'

In a Guardian/ICM poll of 1,007 adults carried out over the weekend, 72 percent thought the government's foreign policy had increased the threat against Britain from terrorists.

The same poll, published in Tuesday's edition of The Guardian, also showed that support for Labour dipped four percentage points to 31 percent, the lowest since 1987, while the main opposition Conservative Party gained support, rising to 40 percent, its strongest showing since 1992.

Britain's second-biggest opposition Liberal Democrat Party, meanwhile, gained five percentage points to 22 percent.

Were those results to be replicated in a general election, the Conservatives would win a majority in Parliament by about 10 seats.

Only one percent of respondents to the survey thought Blair's actions in the Middle East had made Britain safer.

The prime minister came under heavy criticism over the past month when he stood alongside US President George W. Bush in declining to call for an early ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and the Shia militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The poll also indicates British voters are suspicious of the news from ministers about the alleged threat from terrorism, with 21 percent saying they thought the government actively exaggerated the danger, compared with a fifth who believed it was telling the truth.

Some 51 percent of respondents also said they were convinced ministers were not telling them the full story with regard to the threat from terrorism.