In the first survey to ask people living along city peace lines their views on the continuance of walls 10 years after the Belfast Agreement, 1,037 people were asked 18 questions by Millward Brown Ulster.

The poll asked whether or not those who live at interface areas in the city are interested in using the Belfast Agreement's 10th anniversary as an occasion to bring down part of the peace line.

In April, the US-Ireland Alliance is hosting a gathering in Belfast with Senator George Mitchell and other negotiators to mark the 10th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement.

Last month three specific interface areas were polled – the Falls/Shankill area, east Belfast (referred to in the poll as Short Strand and Templemore Avenue), and north Belfast (referred to in the poll as Antrim Road/Tigers Bay).

Key findings of the poll were that 81 per cent wanted walls to come down.

However, only 21 per cent said they believed peace walls should come down immediately; 60 per cent said the peace walls should come down, but not at present and 17 per cent said they did not care if they never came down.

It was also found there was "strong agreement that the walls serve to help residents feel safer by keeping the communities separated. They also feel the walls serve to stop young gang-related activity".

Meanwhile, 61 per cent said they believed politicians should be doing more to create conditions for the walls to come down and 58 per cent said they lacked confidence in the ability of the police to preserve peace and maintain order if the walls were removed.

Encouragingly, those polled seem reluctant to simply place blame on "the other side", instead accepting that both sides of each interface area share culpability.

There was a net disagreement with the proposition that "the other side could not be trusted".

Very few intimated that they would consider moving out if the walls come down.

Complete results of the poll can be found at www.us-irelandalliance.org