A survey released Saturday shows that 45.2 percent of respondents disagree with the government's policy of rejecting a demand for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq issued by a group that took three Japanese hostage.

But 43.5 percent support the policy.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday rejected the demand to pull Self-Defense Forces troops out of Iraq, despite pleas from the relatives of the hostages.

In the Kyodo News poll, 45.8 percent said they support the government's dispatch of the SDF to Iraq as part of humanitarian aid to help rebuild the country, while 45 percent said they oppose it.

The telephone poll conducted Friday and Saturday covered 1,448 eligible voters nationwide, of whom 971 responded.

More than 80 percent said Koizumi would be responsible if a Japanese is injured in Iraq, and 36 percent said he should resign if a Japanese is killed there.

The poll shows that the support rate for the Koizumi Cabinet is at 48.4 percent, down 3 percentage points from the previous poll in March, while the disapproval rate is 39.3 percent, up 2.6 points.

It shows that 7.4 percent have a high opinion of the Cabinet and 49.6 percent have a fairly high opinion of it, while 34.6 percent said they do not regard it very well, and 7.1 percent said they do not have a good view of the Cabinet.

Among those with a good opinion of the Cabinet, 32.3 percent said it is because Koizumi's choice of ministers was not constrained by factions, while 20.5 percent cited its structural reform efforts.