Washington ? Majorities of Iraqi youths in Arab regions of the country believe security would improve and violence decrease if the U.S.-led forces left immediately, according to a State Department poll that provides a window into the grim warnings provided to policymakers.

The survey – unclassified, but marked “For Official U.S. Government Use Only” – also finds that Iraqi leaders may face particular difficulty recruiting young Sunni Arabs to join the stumbling security forces. Strong majorities of 15- to 29-year-olds in two Arab Sunni areas – Mosul and Tikrit-Baquba – would oppose joining the Iraqi army or police.

The poll has its shortcomings: regional samples are small and the results do not say how many people refused to respond to questions. The private polling firm hired by the State Department also was not able to interview residents of al-Anbar, a Sunni-dominated province and an insurgent stronghold.

But the findings of the summer survey – circulated to policymakers last month and obtained by The Associated Press last week – nevertheless provide a solemn reminder of the difficulty that the U.S.-backed Iraqi government faces as it tries to add ethnic diversity to its security institutions.

As Iraqi leaders try to diversify the ethnic and religious backgrounds of their security forces, the department’s opinion analysis said that Arab Sunnis may be particularly hard to recruit.

In Arab Sunni areas, “confidence in the Iraqi army and police is low, and majorities oppose enlisting in either force,” the analysis said. “Even recruitment in Arab Shia areas could present challenges as sizable numbers of local youth express support” for local militias, “thus clouding the issue of loyalty to national forces.”

The analysis was headlined “Youth In Iraq’s Arab Sunni Regions Not Eager to Enlist in National Army, Police” and highlighted views from those areas. Yet in its assessment of the broader picture for Iraq, which includes Kurds and Arab Shiites, there were pieces of good news: A majority of young Iraqis would be willing to join the security forces or support a family member who did, the survey found.

In this poll, nine out of 10 young Iraqi Arabs said they see the U.S. and allied forces in Iraq as an occupying force. The majority of Iraqi youths in Arab regions – half in Baghdad and Kirkuk – also believe the security situation and the violence levels would improve if the U.S. and its allies left immediately.

On the contrary, 70 percent of young Iraqi Kurds see the multinational forces as a liberating force.