The poll by the China Youth Daily also found a majority of Chinese believe they will be able to live in peace during their lifetime, but consider the North Korean nuclear crisis the biggest threat to peace in their country.

Wen left for the US earlier Sunday, the first stop in a four-country swing that will also take him to Canada, Mexico and Ethiopia.

In the survey of 1,694 people from China's 31 provinces and regions, 22.7 percent said the United States was the biggest threat to world peace, while 31.4 percent named the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Conversely, 73 percent of respondents said they were confident they can live a life of peace and stability.

China, a neighbor and the closest ally of North Korea, has been actively trying to broker a successful round of six-country talks to resolve the year-long crisis involving the North's nuclear weapons program.

Some 18.5 percent of the people surveyed named terrorism as the biggest threat to peace in China -- with 72.8 percent of the respondents saying they were worried about an increase in terrorist activities in the future -- while 15.8 percent said they were most worried about Iraq jeopardising peace.

Views about the United Nations were mixed. While 42.4 percent said the UN could play an important role in maintaining world peace, 31.2 percent said they were not optimistic and 26.4 percent said they could not make up their mind.

Most of the respondents were between age 19 to 35.

WAR.WIRE