POLL: The degree of torture tolerated by a nation's population regarding terror suspects depends in large part on the threat of violence each country faces, according to a new BBC World Service poll.
Pollsters surveyed more than 27,000 people in 25 countries, asking whether or not torturing prisoners is acceptable if the information yielded could save innocent lives.
"Support for using torture is generally greatest in those countries who see themselves as actively engaged in a struggle against political violence," BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus said.
Israel had the largest percentage of respondents who would agree to some measure of torture on prisoners, with 44 per cent, despite a split between 53 per cent of Israeli Jews who favour it versus only 16 per cent of Israeli Muslims who feel the same.
Still, 48 per cent of Israelis polled indicated they were against all torture.
Just below Israel was Iraq, with 42 per cent of those questioned indicating that some form of torture was acceptable when innocent lives are at stake. The Philippines and Indonesia both had 40 per cent.
In China and Russia, 37 per cent of those polled favoured some torture, as did 36 per cent of respondents in the United States.
The BBC opinion poll did not define what it meant to torture prisoners, though the matter has become contentious in the US, straining relations with its key European allies.
The Bush administration continues holding terror suspects in Guantánamo Bay with little transparency and conducting renditions, the clandestine transfer of terror suspects to places that allegedly practise torture.
Ireland was not among the countries polled.
The BBC concluded that populations in 19 out of the 25 countries surveyed preferred strict regulations against torturing prisoners because anything less would be immoral, weakening human rights standards.
Italians seemed the most opposed to any kind of torture, even to save innocent lives, at 81 per cent. Australia, France, Canada and Britain each polled more than 70 per cent against all torture.