Fewer than half of US voters approve of President George W. Bush's job performance, according to a poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal, his lowest-ever approval rating.

The poll, in which the US president won 49 percent approval, comes four months before Bush's Democratic rivals launch their first primaries, and marks Bush's lowest rating since taking office in January 2000

Some 52 percent of those polled said they disapproved of the way Bush is handling the economy -- the highest rate ever, and for the first time above 50 percent, the poll's authors said.

And while 60 percent of those surveyed said they still support the way Bush is handling the war on terrorism, the figure was the lowest since the question was first asked in April 2002.

The survey questioned 1,007 adults from Saturday through Monday, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The survey results were published as the president returned from the United Nations General Assembly where he sought more international support for reconstruction efforts and troop deployment in Iraq.

The US administration has also been pressing Congress to approve the 87 billion dollars it has requested for post-war Iraq.

Giving their opinions on how the funds should be raised, 56 percent said they would repeal a portion of tax cuts passed by Congress last May, which gave greater benefits to upper-income taxpayers.

© 2003 AFP

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