Bush's approval rating is at all-time low — 34%

WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) — President Bush's approval rating is at an all-time low of 34 percent, dragged down by concerns about his handling of the war in Iraq and slow progress in rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, a CBS News poll said.

Bush's approval rating, down seven percentage points from a month ago, eclipsed his previous low of 35 percent approval in October 2005, CBS said. Fifty-nine percent disapproved of Bush's performance in the survey of 1,018 adults, conducted Feb. 22-26.

The president's approval rating has fallen as concerns grow about his handling of Iraq and the Gulf region, CBS said.

Perceptions about the U.S. military operation in Iraq are also at an all-time low, the poll found. Thirty-six percent of respondents said things are going "well" in Iraq, compared with 62 percent who said things are going "badly." That's down from 72 percent who saw the effort positively and 24 percent who viewed it negatively in February 2003.

Fifty percent in the latest poll said they disapprove of the way Bush is handling the war on terror, CBS reported.

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, 59 percent of Americans said they are "dissatisfied" or "angry" about how the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast is going, the poll found. Only 32 percent approved of Bush's response to the needs of storm victims.

Still, Bush's approval ratings were higher than that of Congress. Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed approved of the way Congress is doing its job versus 61 percent who disapproved, the poll found. A year ago, the public was more evenly split, with 41 percent approving of Congress's performance and 44 percent disapproving.

The poll also found that 70 percent of Americans, including 58 percent of Republicans, said they oppose a White House-backed agreement to give a state-owned Dubai company control of six major U.S. ports, CBS News said.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent, CBS said.