US President George W. Bush's approval rating has hit a new low and public confidence in his handling of the war in Iraq is eroding, according to a poll released on Monday.
The USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll showed 36 percent of those surveyed said they "approve" of Bush's performance, down from 37 percent last November.
Asked about the US-led war in Iraq, 57 percent said that sending US troops was a mistake, up from 55 percent two weeks earlier.
Sixty-seven percent said the president lacked "a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq," an all-time high compared to previous polls.
A similar percentage, however, did not believe the Democrats had a clear plan either.
The poll showed that Bush's allies in the Republican Party face a potential threat from their Democratic rivals in the mid-term legislative elections this November.
When voters were asked which party they would support, Democrats scored 55 percent to 39 percent for the Republicans.
The 16-point gap was the largest margin enjoyed by the Democrats since 1992, according to USA Today's Web site.
The poll results came as Bush launched a fresh public relations campaign on Monday to convince Americans that Iraq was not about to plunge into a full-blown civil war three years after the US invasion.
The US president's approval ratings dropped below 50 percent last May and have been hovering around or below 40 percent since last October.
The USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll, conducted between last Friday and Sunday, surveyed 1,001 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
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