With the war in Iraq getting messier and messier and economy failing to pick up, US President George W Bush's approval rating has dipped to a new low with 49 per cent Americans surveyed approving and 47 per cent disapproving the way he is handling the job as president, according to a poll.

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Only 44 per cent of Americans approve of the way Bush is handling the situation with Iraq, down from 51 per cent in the last week of March.

But a majority of 55 per cent approve of the way Bush is handling terrorism, while 39 per cent disapprove.

Only four in ten or 41 per cent approve of the president's handling of economy, while 54 per cent disapprove.
 
But half of those surveyed believe that things are going very well or fairly well.

The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 per cent.