Most people in the US want former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to hang if he is convicted at his trial, a view not shared by some of the country's longtime allies.
AP-Ipsos polling found that residents of eight other countries -- most of whom have abolished the death penalty -- prefer that the former Iraqi leader spend life in prison.
Similar, but less dramatic, disparities were found when US attitudes were compared to those in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Korea and Spain on whether Saddam is getting a fair trial, and whether Iraqis are better off since he was driven from office.
Saddam, who was captured nine months after US-led forces invaded Iraq, and seven co-defendants are being tried on charges of carrying out torture and illegal arrests and executions. They face death by hanging if convicted.
In the US, 57 percent said Saddam should be executed if he is convicted in the trial now in its fifth month in Baghdad.
"If he truly destroyed as many lives as they say he did, then he doesn't deserve to live," said Craig Larson, a military retiree who lives in Chesapeake, Virginia.
The survey found most people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Spain willing to send Saddam to prison for the rest of his life. In Canada and Mexico, people were more inclined to favor a life sentence than execution.
The death penalty has been abolished in seven of the nine countries polled. A study by Amnesty International found that more than nine of the 10 executions worldwide in 2004 were carried out in the US, China, Iran and Vietnam.
Public support for sending Saddam to prison for life was strongest in Spain and Italy -- where seven in 10 favored a life sentence over death. Similar sentiment was expressed in Germany, where residents are still sensitive to the violence of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler during World War II.
In the US, the poll found more than one-third favoring life in prison for Saddam if he is convicted.
"I am not one for putting people to death," said Molly Gearin of Bullhead, Arizona. "I'm not God."
The poll found 73 percent of those surveyed in the US saying Saddam is getting a fair trial.
Many in the other countries surveyed aren't so sure. A third or less of the people in Mexico, Spain and South Korea say Saddam is getting a fair trial. Less than half in France say he is getting a fair shake.
The polling also found that two-thirds of the people in the US were convinced that Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam -- a higher percentage than in the other countries polled.
People in Mexico, South Korea and Spain were far more inclined to say Iraqis are doing worse. In Germany and France -- which strongly opposed the US invasion of Iraq -- people were about evenly divided on that question.
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