Independent voters are losing confidence in US President George W. Bush's leadership over Iraq as attacks there continue, a new poll showed.

In the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll released on Tuesday, 39 percent of independents approve of the way the administration has handled the situation in Iraq since the president declared an end to major combat on May 1, and 57 percent of independents disapprove. In the public overall, 47 percent approve.

The figures show a substantial decline in support from late April, when 73 percent of independents approved the conduct of the war, and 80 percent of the public approved.

According to the poll, independents are less inclined to vote for Bush next year than to vote for a Democrat, with 35 percent choosing Bush while 42 percent favor an unnamed Democrat. Among all registered voters, Bush leads the unnamed Democrat 46 percent against 43 percent, which is within an error margin of four percentage points.

"It's a huge problem," Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, was quoted as saying by USA Today newspaper. "Bush prematurely claimed the fighting was over, and the public continues to see Americans at risk. Every time something bad happens, it further erodes administration support, especially among independents."

The survey showed that 57 percent of those canvassed - 70 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of independents and 43 percent of Republicans - say the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq.

The poll also found 53 percent approve the job Bush is doing as president, down from 56 percent earlier this month but above his lowest rating, 50 percent, in mid-September.

The poll was conducted from Friday to Sunday among 1,006 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, except for a four-point error margin on the Bush election question.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2003)