US President George W. Bush's overall approval rating has risen by three percentage points to 48percent from mid-March, a new poll published on Wednesday showed.

But his approval rating on handling the economy has dropped to 41 percent, down seven percentage points from a similar poll a month ago, and now, for the first time, more people than not believe Bush misled them over the need to go to war in Iraq.

Moreover, his disapproval rating on handling social security was 57 percent, the highest of his presidency, according to the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll.

The survey of 1,040 adults was conducted last Friday and Saturday and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

On social security, the weeks of road trips by the president arguing the need of adding individual investment accounts to revamp the decades-old social security program, appears to have failed with the public's investment urgency dropping.

The number of people who said it was extremely important for the Congress to deal with social security this year fell to 37 percent from 41 percent in early February.

On Iraq, 50 percent of those surveyed said the Bush administration deliberately misled the American public over Iraq'spossession of weapons of mass destruction, the reason Bush cited for going to war.

It was the first time more people than not saw an attempt to mislead.

Source: Xinhua