Just 58 percent of the 1,002 adults polled approved of Bush's job performance, down from 63 percent a month ago.

WASHINGTON, January 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. President George W. Bush's popularity has slipped to its lowest level since the September 11, 2001, attacks, amid a struggling economy and public fears of conflict with Iraq and North Korea, according to a poll released Monday, January 13.

Just 58 percent of the 1,002 adults questioned for the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll approved of Bush's job performance, down from 63 percent a month ago, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Bush's approval rating was higher than those of former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton at the start of their third years in office, but a significant drop from the 90 percent support he enjoyed just after the deadly attacks by hijacked airliners.

The poll also showed a drop in the share of Americans who approve of his handling of both the economy - 48 percent versus 49 percent in October - and foreign affairs - 53 percent versus 58 percent in October.

Some 55 percent said Bush was not paying enough attention to the economy, versus 41 percent who said he was paying the right amount of attention and two percent who said he was paying too much attention.

On Iraq, the percentage favoring a U.S. invasion edged up slightly to 56 percent from 55 percent a month ago.

The poll, taken Friday through Sunday, had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Anti-War Activists Speak Louder

On Monday, a group of American academics who oppose a war with Iraq began a fact-finding and humanitarian mission in Baghdad, saying a conflict was illegal and unnecessary.

"U.S. Academics Against the War" sent 35 people from 28 universities across the United States to Iraq after 30,000 teachers signed a petition to try to persuade President George W. Bush not to unleash a war.

"We have come here to establish dialogue, to do a fact-finding mission, to represent the humanitarian aspect of the American public, because we have concern for the people here, for the families, for the children who are going to suffer during any future war," said coordinator James Jennings.

"We oppose a war, we think that it constitutes aggression, it is contrary to international law, it will do great damage to the infrastructure and to the people and to the country, it is unwarranted, unnecessary, unwise, it is contrary to the deepest values of the American constitution."

The group, which arrived Sunday night, visited a children's hospital in Baghdad and the capital's Amariya air shelter where some 400 civilians perished during a US aerial bombardment in February 1991, at the height of the Gulf War. At the time, U.S. officials said they believed the site was an Iraqi military command centre.

The Washington Post reported Monday that many anti-war activists have arrived in Baghdad in recent days to "plead for a peaceful solution to the showdown between the Bush administration an President Saddam Hussein's government."

According to the paper, these activists include "Italian legislators, South African Muslims, German musicians and a flurry of Americans, from church leaders and professors to four women who lost relatives in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."

"Most of the activists have not waited to return before beginning their lobbying efforts. With the encouragement and sometimes the assistance of their Iraqi hosts, they have sought out foreign journalists through news conferences and photo opportunities," said the Post.