Seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a role in the 11 September 2001 attacks, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this.

Sixty-nine per cent of Americans said they thought it at least likely that Saddam was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, according to a Washington Post poll published yesterday. That impression, which exists despite the fact that the hijackers were mostly Saudi nationals acting for al-Qaeda, is broadly shared by Democrats, Republicans and independents.

The main reason for the endurance of the apparently groundless belief, experts in public opinion say, is a deep and enduring distrust of Saddam that makes him a likely suspect in anything related to Middle East violence. 'It's very easy to picture Saddam as a demon,' said John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University and an expert on public opinion and war.

'You get a general fuzz going around: People know they don't like al-Qaeda, they are horrified by 11 September, they know this guy is a bad guy, and it's not hard to put those things together.'

Although that belief came without prompting from Washington, Democrats and some independent experts say Bush exploited the apparent misconception by implying a link between Saddam and the 11 September 2001 attacks in the months before the war with Iraq. 'The notion was reinforced by these hints, the discussions that they had about possible links with al-Qaeda terrorists,' said Andrew Kohut, a pollster who leads the non-partisan Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

The poll's findings are significant because they help to explain why the public continues to support operations in Iraq despite the setbacks and bloodshed there.

Americans have more tolerance for war when it is provoked by an attack, particularly one by an all-purpose villain such as Hussein. 'That's why attitudes about the decision to go to war are holding up,' Kohut said.

© The Washington Post