A majority of Americans disapprove of the government's attempt to collect millions of telephone records from ordinary citizens, an opinion poll showed.

The survey by USA Today newspaper and Gallup also showed around two-thirds of respondents were concerned that the program conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) may signal other, undisclosed efforts to gather information on the general public.

By a margin of 51 percent to 43 percent, those polled disapproved of the program.

The existence of the program was first disclosed last Thursday by USA Today, which said the database compiled by the NSA following the September 11, 2001 attacks contained phone records of tens of millions of Americans provided by AT and T, Verizon and BellSouth.

Officials would not provide any details on how the records were used. But former government security experts and media reports indicated that its origin lay in US phone numbers found on Al-Qaeda suspects captured overseas.

Two-thirds of those surveyed were concerned that the database would identify innocent Americans as possible terrorism suspects.

Among Republicans and those who generally vote Republican, 71 percent approved of the NSA program, while among Democrats and Democratic "leaners," 73 percent disapproved.

Americans were split on whether the news media should report information about the government's secret methods to fight terrorism: 47 percent said "yes" and 49 percent said "no".

By a margin of 62 percent to 34 percent, those surveyed supported immediate congressional hearings to investigate the practice.

The poll of 809 adults conducted Friday and Saturday had a margin of error of plus or minus four percent.

Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse

###