WASHINGTON: Attitudes towards the United States and other Western countries in Pakistan have continued to harden for the past several years with the majority saying that Westerners are greedy, immoral and selfish, says a survey by Pew Research Institute.

The latest report by the Washington-based surveyors also claims that fanaticism in Pakistan has increased by double-digits over the last five years.

The survey, which maps out attitudes the West in several major Muslim nations, points out that Muslim and Western publics continue to see relations between them as generally bad, with both sides holding negative stereotypes of the other.

Many in the West see Muslims as fanatical and violent, while few say Muslims are tolerant or respectful of women.

Muslims in the Middle East and Asia generally see Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy — as well as violent and fanatical.

The global attitudes survey, however, finds somewhat of a thaw in the US and Europe compared with five years ago. A greater percentage of Western publics now see relations between themselves and Muslims as generally good compared with 2006.

In contrast, people in predominantly Muslim nations are as inclined to say relations are generally bad as they were five years ago. And, as in the past, Muslims express more unfavourable opinions about Christians than Americans or Europeans express about Muslims.

The survey, conducted from March 21 to May 15, finds that nearly 10 years after the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, tensions remain high, although there are also some shared concerns.

For instance, both Muslims and Westerners are concerned about Islamic extremism. More than two-thirds in Russia, Germany, Britain, the US and France are worried about Islamic extremists in their country. About 77 per cent of Israelis also hold this view.

But extremism is considered a threat in predominantly Muslim nations as well. More than seven-in-ten Palestinian and Lebanese Muslims are worried about Islamic extremists in their countries, as are most Muslims in Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey.

For Muslims, the most common concern about extremism is that it is violent, although in both Egypt and the Palestinian territories the top fear is that extremism could divide the country.