Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Public support for the war in Iraq declined, with an increasing number of Americas saying the U.S. should bring its troops home as soon as possible, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

A majority of Americans -- 53 percent -- said the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, according to Pew. That is up 5 points in the past month and the highest percentage favoring a troop pullout since the war began almost four years ago. Thirty-five percent said the withdrawal should be gradual over the next year or two, and 16 percent said it should be immediate.

President George W. Bush is pressing ahead with a plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq to help quell sectarian violence. The House of Representatives is debating a resolution that disapproves of Bush's strategy and a vote is planned for tomorrow. The measure has the support of most Democrats, who have a majority in the chamber, and some Republicans.

Confidence in a successful outcome in Iraq, which remained high last year even as violence began escalating, also has dropped in the Feb. 7-11 Pew survey. The public is now evenly divided over whether the U.S. is likely to achieve its goals in Iraq: 47 percent said it will definitely or probably succeed, and 46 percent disagreed. Three months ago, 53 percent saw success as at least probable and 41 percent disagreed.

Two-thirds of Americans, or 67 percent, said things aren't going well with the U.S. military effort in Iraq, and 68 percent said the U.S. is losing ground in preventing a civil war.

Independent Swing

In recent Pew surveys on this topic, voters who identified themselves as independent split evenly over whether to bring the troops home. In January, 47 percent of independents favored a troop withdrawal, while 49 percent said the troops should remain in Iraq until the situation there stabilized.

In the current survey, 55 percent of independents said they favored bringing the troops home as soon as possible, compared with 40 percent who said the troops should remain.

The poll also found that public perceptions of the threat posed by Iran didn't increase in the past year. A quarter of Americans said Iran is the country that represents the ``greatest danger'' to the U.S. -- a figure little changed since last February, when 27 percent said that.

Nineteen percent cited Iraq as the top threat, 17 percent named North Korea and 14 percent said China.

On another issue, 64 percent said the country is ``losing ground'' on the federal budget deficit. Bush last week said he was on track to erase the federal budget deficit by 2012. While there was a slight improvement in the public's assessment of the economy in December, this month's poll shows a reversal of that trend.

Thirty-one percent in the new poll said economic conditions are excellent or good, down from 38 percent in December. Bush's job approval rating was 33 percent, virtually unchanged from last month.

Pew polled 1,509 adults nationwide for the survey, which has a 3 percentage-point error margin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 15, 2007 17:04 EST