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Israelis favour

pullout without

deal: poll

JERUSALEM: A majority of Israelis are in favour of a troop withdrawal from south Lebanon without waiting for a deal with Lebanon or its political master Syria, according to an opinion poll published on Thursday.

Asked if Israel should pull out as soon as possible even without a "suitable" agreement, 57 percent said 'yes', while 40 percent were opposed and three percent had no response, said the poll published in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

But a slim majority, 51 percent, said an arrangement for a Lebanon withdrawal should be a condition for continuing peace talks with Syria, which broke off last month over Damascus's demands for a prior agreement from Israel to return the occupied Golan Heights.

Forty-six percent of the 509 Israelis questioned said it should not be a condition and three percent had no response.

Prime Minister Ehud Barak has promised to bring the troops home by July but calls have been mounting for an earlier withdrawal following the killing of six soldiers in two weeks by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

The poll, conducted by the Dahaf Institute, has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.ÑAFP