CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - A poll has found that a majority of respondents would vote President Hugo Chavez out office, giving hope to those calling for a referendum on his rule.

The survey asked voters how they would vote in a referendum on Chavez rule, and 65 percent said they would vote for him to quit while 32 percent said he should stay in office, according to results released Tuesday by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Public Opinion Strategies.

The door-to-door poll, which was conducted by the two U.S. firms on behalf of Radio Caracas Television, questioned 1,000 adults nationwide between July 14-20. It had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

The results come less than two weeks after a local poll found more than two-thirds of those surveyed would oust the embattled president. Both polls raised the hopes of opposition leaders trying to organize a recall referendum.

Venezuela's Constitution allows citizens to petition for a referendum halfway into a president's six-year-term. In the case of Chavez, that would be Aug. 19.

Opposition groups agreed Tuesday to unite their efforts to request the referendum on Chavez's rule and establish a mechanism to choose a single candidate for a future election.

The president's opponents want to hold the referendum later this year.

Opponents of the president say his policies have harmed the economy and they accuse him of trying to eliminate checks on his power. Chavez counters that he is trying to free the country from a corrupt political system that ignored the needs of the country's impoverished majority.

Source: Tampa Bay Online