LOS ANGELES, Jan 24: In the nearly two years since US-led troops invaded Iraq, opposition to the invasion has grown in the United States and few Americans believe that the upcoming elections will improve the situation in the country.

Only one-third of the Americans surveyed in a Harris poll last week said they expect the Jan 30 vote to help quell violence in Iraq. Thirty-four per cent said the situation would get better after the vote, while another 34 per cent said things would remain the same and 25 per cent said the situation would get worse, according to the poll of 2,209 adults by Harris Interactive.

"It has taken a while, but now Americans seem to be more conscious of the war and its impact," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

"Many Americans at first gave the benefit of the doubt to (President George Bush) out of patriotism, out of confidence in him. "Now we have a majority of people saying the war was a mistake," Mr Cain said.

President Bush avoided using the word "Iraq" in his inaugural speech on Thursday, but made it clear that a drive to spread freedom and end tyranny would be the centrepiece of his foreign policy during his next four years in office.

Mr Bush has repeatedly defended his decision to topple Saddam Hussein and points to his re-election as evidence that the American people are behind him. "We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 election," Mr Bush told The Washington Post in an interview last week.

A Washington Post-ABC poll found, however, that 55 per cent of Americans said the invasion of Iraq was not worth fighting while 44 per cent said it was. And a USA Today-CNN poll found Americans felt 52-47 per cent that the Iraq invasion was a mistake.

Just days before the Iraqi elections, Mr Bush trumpeted having put an end to one of the worst dictatorships on the planet and asked for patience. "I am realistic about how quickly a society that has been dominated by a tyrant can become a democracy, and therefore I am more patient than some," Mr Bush told the Post. -AFP