US President George W. Bush's approval ratings have improved in April even as the month has become the deadliest for US troops in Iraq and many Americans continue to question the president's handling of the situation there, a poll released on Monday showed.  

The nationwide survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center on April 21-25, found the approval rating for the president had risen by five percentage points, to 48 percent, from 43 percent in an early April poll. Forty-three of the respondents disapproved Bush's overall job performance.

On the Iraq issue, 48 percent of those surveyed disapproved of the way the president was dealing with Iraq, and only 36 percent thought he had a clear plan for bringing the situation in Iraq to a successful conclusion.

Despite mounting casualties and growing instability in Iraq, over half of Americans -- 54 percent -- continued to say the United States made the right decision to go to war, three percentage points lower than the survey in early April.

In addition, more Americans -- 53 percent -- favored keeping US forces in Iraq until a stable government was established, and 40 percent supported withdrawing the troops as soon as possible, compared with 50 percent against 44 percent in the early April poll.

The survey, which was conducted among 1,000 adults, also found a majority of Americans -- 55 percent -- continued to approve of Bush's handling of terrorist threats, down from 65 percent in December 2003.

Most Americans, the poll found, rejected comparisons between the Iraq war and the war in Vietnam. A quarter of those polled said Iraq would turn out to be another Vietnam, while 54 percent believed the United States would accomplish its goals in Iraq.

Only 42 percent approved of the way Bush was handling the economy, while 51 percent disapproved, according to the survey.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2004)