More Swedes have supported joining the euro zone now amid the financial crisis, a poll published in a Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter said Monday.

The poll, carried out by the Swedish opinion research institute Synovate, showed that 44 percent of Swedes would vote for the euro, if a referendum on the matter is held now, 9 percentage points higher than a similar poll carried out by Statistics Sweden in May.

But still 48 percent of Swedes said that they would still vote to retain the krona, 4 percent lower than in May.

A weakening Krona amid the financial crisis was the main reason why support for euro increased, said Mikael Gilliam, a political scientist at Gothenburg University.

He also attributed the increase to the parties' work to affect public opinion.

In a 2003 referendum, 56 percent of Swedes voted against dropping the krona for the euro. So Sweden has decided to stay outside the euro zone along with Britain and Denmark in EU.

(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2008)