Washington ? People of different ages, races and political beliefs have sharply divergent views of the war, though overall support remains steady at about seven in 10 Americans, a poll released Thursday showed.

About nine in 10 Republicans say President Bush made the right decision to go to war with Iraq while just more than half of Democrats, 56 percent, felt that way, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

While men were the most likely to say that going to war was the right decision, women were much less supportive. Only about half of women over the age of 75 said going to war was the right decision, and about the same number of women under age 25 felt that way. Only a third of black women said war was the right choice.

The poll of 2,708 adults was taken between March 20 and April 1.