Survey Shows More Swedes Against Joining NATO

The number of Swedish voters opposing NATO membership has gone up markedly, in an apparent backlash of the bloc's airstrikes on Yugoslavia last year, Sweden's largest daily Dagens Nyheter reported Tuesday.

In a survey conducted between April 16 and 19 by TEMO, a Swedish public opinion research institute, 45 percent of the people polled said they were against the country's entry into NATO, up by 9 percentage points compared with the result of a similar survey in 1997.

Arne Modig, head of the institute, attributed the rise to widespread antipathy to NATO's 78-day bombing in Yugoslavia last year, said the report.

Among the 1,089 polled, only 28 percent favored the entry, with 10 percent neither for nor against and the remaining 17 percent undecided.

Sweden stood non-aligned and neutral during World War II and the Cold War period, but established "partnership for peace" with NATO after the Cold War and increased military cooperation with the alliance.

Please visit People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/