Three quarters of people believe that Scotland should stay in Nato if it becomes an independent country, according to a poll.
The gauge of public opinion emerged days after it was confirmed that the SNP is considering ditching its long-standing aim of pulling Scotland out of the nuclear-armed military alliance.
Delegates at the party conference in October will decide whether they should permit an independent Scotland to remain in Nato or continue to resist membership of the organisation.
A YouGov survey of 1,008 Scottish adults showed that 75% of them believe an independent Scotland should remain in Nato.
Eleven per cent of those surveyed thought the country should leave the alliance if there is a "Yes" vote for independence in the anticipated 2014 referendum, according to the poll published in the Scotland on Sunday newspaper.
The poll was carried out as part of SNP defence spokesman Angus Robertson's defence review, the newspaper said.
The figures in detail reveal that 70% of SNP voters think an independent Scotland should be part of the alliance.
The number increased among voters for the pro-Union parties. Eighty-nine per cent of Conservative voters back staying in Nato, as do 82% of Lib Dems and 78% of Labour supporters.
On a separate but related issue, the study found that 62% of those quizzed think that the Scottish Government should have the final say over whether nuclear weapons should be based in Scotland.
Thirty-one per cent said the UK Government should have the last word.
The party's long-standing opposition to Nato stems from its ambition to remove nuclear weapons from Scotland.
Continuing Nato membership will be "subject to agreement on withdrawal of Trident from Scotland", according to Mr Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader.
He has called the October resolution the "first significant defence policy update in 10 years which at its heart prepares for better defence decision-making in Scotland".
Current SNP policy favours "co-operation with international alliances such as Nato through its Partnership for Peace programme while not being a member".
The new resolution states: "An SNP Government will maintain Nato membership subject to an agreement that Scotland will not host nuclear weapons and Nato continues to respect the right of members to only take part in UN-sanctioned operations. In the absence of such an agreement, Scotland will work with Nato as a member of the Partnership for Peace programme."
This position would put Scotland on the same footing as 25 out of 28 Nato member states who do not possess their own nuclear weapons.
Five Nato states currently host US nuclear weapons: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Turkey. Canada stopped hosting US nuclear weapons in 1984 and Greece in 2001.
The Nato resolution will be part of a wider foreign, security and defence policy update, which will be put to the vote in Perth between October 18 and 21.
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