India's image abroad is increasingly being seen in positive light, with most favorable views of the country coming from North America, Asia and Africa, a survey has shown.

The positive image of India among the countries tracked by a BBC World Service survey has risen from 38 per cent to 41 per cent whereas the negative views have gone up by a point to 28 per cent.

The poll shows that 14 countries have mostly positive views of India, with Australia leading the pack with 71 per cent, followed by Canada at 59 per cent, United States 57 per cent and Indonesia at 54 per cent.

What is also being pointed out is that among the new countries polled, the image of India tended to be positive -- in Ghana there was a 46 per cent positive feeling as opposed to a 19 per cent negative rating; in Japan it is 34 per cent positive and 11 per cent negative.

The World Service survey, released on Wednesday, also shows that the views about India are divided in Spain-- 35 per cent positive and 31 per cent negative; and on the whole lean towards being negative in Central America with 33 per cent negative, 21 per cent positive.

After years of taking the low road in the years of the Bush administration, positive perception of the United States has gone up by four points--from 31 per cent to 35 per cent with negative views of Washington's influence dropping five percentage points to 47 per cent.

In the world opinion poll, more than 17,000 people in 34 countries were interviewed with the survey period being three months up to the end of January 2008.