WASHINGTON, July 2: The US public is tiring of the war effort in Iraq and, for the first time, a survey said on Wednesday, most believe the Bush administration “stretched the truth” or lied about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

In the face of the falling support, President George Bush has sought to reassure the public that the United States is not becoming bogged down in a protracted conflict, but he and other US leaders have warned it could be a long presence.

A poll by the University of Maryland found that 52 per cent of respondents said they believed Mr Bush and his aides were “stretching the truth, but not making false statements” about Saddam Hussein’s chemical, biological and nuclear programmes.

Another 10 per cent said US officials had presented “evidence they knew was false”, indicated the survey. Only 32 per cent said they thought the government was being “fully truthful” about the Iraqi arsenal.

Weapons of mass destruction were used as the main justification for launching conflict before the invasion was launched on March 20.

But since the fall of Baghdad on April 9 and Mr Bush’s declaration that the major combat was over on May 1, the United States has yet to report the discovery of any banned weapons.

And the mounting death toll among US troops in Iraq has helped to undermine public confidence in the US occupation.

As a result, 63 per cent of the 1,051 people polled now believe the US Congress should investigate intelligence agencies to find out how they came up with information about the alleged Iraqi arsenal, the University of Maryland survey found.

Fifty-six percent believed the US government stretched the truth or made outright false statements about Saddam Hussein’s ties to the Al Qaeda network.

Although overall support for the invasion of Iraq remained high, the poll gave indications of its erosion.

Thus, the share of those who unconditionally believe the invasion was the right thing to do dwindled from 53 per cent in early May to 46 percent in early June.

Twenty-nine percent, up from 22 percent in May, now say the United States was wrong.

Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland survey programme, said: “The poll shows the public is in some turmoil about Iraq and uneasy about some of the administration claims.

“But for most people, the pluses of going to war still outweigh the minuses.”

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer rebuffed suggestions that public support was falling. “I think the American people actually have a very good centre of gravity about the situation in Iraq,” he told reporters.

Only 56 percent of respondents in the USA Today/CNN/Gallup released on Monday said Iraq was worth going to war over, down from 73 percent in April.

The percentage of people expressing confidence US forces would find evidence of Iraq’s banned weapons slipped to 55 percent from 84 percent earlier.

In the face of the mounting questions, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week dismissed suggestions that the United States was stuck in a guerilla war in Iraq. —AFP