Iran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is weapons-oriented, is considered by far the biggest threat to the US by 65 percent of 1,502 people surveyed February 1-5.

Seventy-two percent believe that Israel would be the target of Iranian nuclear weapons should they come into being, while 66 percent believe Europe and the United States would most likely fall under the mushroom cloud.

And 53 percent thought the United States was dedicating too much of its time to the Iranian nuclear issue; 72 percent said the United Nations should take the lead and 51 percent, the European Union.

North Korea's nuclear program merited a 60 percent danger rating, followed by China as an emerging power (47 percent), leftist leaders in Latin America (24 percent) and Russian authoritarianism (22 percent).

Iran took center stage as the country posing the biggest threat to the United States by 27 percent of those surveyed, triple the number who thought so in October (nine percent).

China was considered a threat by 20 percent, Iraq by 17 percent and North Korea by 11 percent.

Interestingly, the United States itself took fifth place as a threat unto itself by five percent of Americans, according to the Pew poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

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