Barack Obama enjoys overwhelming public support for his performance as president-elect with a majority of Americans expressing confidence in his ability to govern the country, said a new poll published on Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC survey found 73 percent of voters approve of the way he is handling preparations for taking office in January.

Obama enjoyed more support than either Bill Clinton after his election in 1992 or George W. Bush in 2000, according to the poll. But 77 percent of Americans predicted Obama will face bigger problems than most recent presidents.

The number of Americans who view him positively rose to 67 percent, the highest level ever for the former Illinois senator, and his negative rating has declined to 16 percent, said the poll, which was carried out on 3-5 December.

Obama gained support among Republicans as well. Twenty-nine percent of those who voted for his Republican rival John McCain in November now see Obama in a positive light, up from nine percent in October.

Obama gets high marks for the team he has announced so far, with 67 percent "generally pleased" with his choices for posts in his administration, the poll said.

Large majorities in the poll said they expect Obama to succeed on a range of issues, including improving America's image in the world, fixing the economy, repairing infrastructure and pulling US troops out of Iraq.

Eighty percent said it was likely Obama would improve the country's image abroad, 73 percent said he would likely put the economy back on track and 70 percent said they expect him to pull most US forces out of Iraq within 16 months.

The poll, however, revealed a pessimistic outlook on the country's economy, with 62 percent saying the economy will either get worse or stay the same next year.

Only 36 percent expected it to improve.

While there was strong support for Obama, the survey showed continuing disapproval of Bush.

According to the poll, 79 percent said they were not going to miss Bush after he leaves the White House, compared with 55 percent who said that of Clinton in December 2000.

Also, 48 percent believe Bush will be remembered as one of the country’s worst presidents. That compares to 18 percent who said that about Clinton, and six percent about Bush's father, ex-president George H.W. Bush.

Asked what Bush's greatest accomplishment was, 35 percent cited keeping the country safe from more terrorist attacks and 25 percent said removing Saddam Hussein from power. But 35 percent said the Iraq war was Bush's greatest failure.

The poll conducted among 1 009 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

AFP