Bush, Musharraf least trusted by world: Poll

Nigeria is divided over the Pakistani leader and the other 18 nations lean negative.

Just two countries, India and Nigeria give Bush positive ratings while Thailand is divided. Sixteen of the 20 countries surveyed say they lack confidence in the US President. Only Musharraf is rated negatively in more nations. Bush also got the highest average percentage of negative ratings 67 per cent.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is the only world leader to receive largely positive ratings.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, though relatively new to the world stage, gets positive ratings in six nations, more than any other chief of state.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets negative ratings in 13 nations, the most after Bush and Musharraf. Only three nations are slightly positive while one is divided.

Indians remain divided on Chinese President Hu, who also failed to get the confidence vote in 13 countries. Only five 8211; Nigeria, South Korea, Iran, Azerbaijan and Ukraine8212;tend to be positive, according to the survey which was done in countries comprising 60 per cent of the world population.

On average 44 per cent of those surveyed around the world show little or no confidence in the Chinese leader. Only 28 per cent express some or a lot of confidence. In all cases the leader8217;s own public is excluded from the count of countries and the average rating.

On average across the 17 nations excluding Iranians asked about Ahmadinejad, only 22 per cent say they have some or a lot of confidence, while 52 per cent say they have little or no confidence.

Although confidence in Ahmadinejad is up slightly from polling conducted by Pew in 2007, he is still far from being viewed as a credible leader, even in the Muslim world.

Majorities in all four Arab nations surveyed Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories say they lack confidence in Ahmadinejad.

Only in Indonesia does a bare plurality view Ahmadinejad favorably as an international leader.

Conducted between January 10 and May 6, the polls8217; margin of error is plus or minus 2 to 4 per cent.

The poll showed that none of the national leaders on the world stage inspire wide confidence. While Bush is one of the least trusted leaders, no other leader including China8217;s Hu and Russia8217;s Vladimir Putin has gained a broad international base of support.

Only UN Secretary General Ban received largely positive ratings in a worldwide poll that asked respondents whether they trusted international leaders 8220;to do the right thing regarding world affairs.8221; In nine nations a plurality or majority say they have some or a lot of confidence in him to do the right thing. Three nations are divided.

WorldPublicOpinion.org conducted the poll of 19,751 respondents in 20 nations, including most of the largest nations China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Russia as well as Mexico, Argentina, Britain, France and Spain.

Vladimir Putin remains popular inside Russia as he makes the transition from president to prime minister but he has not emerged as an attractive world leader.

Eleven publics have a negative view of Putin while just five are positive and three are divided.

On average 32 per cent express confidence in Putin one of the highest positive ratings but a larger 48 per cent do not.

No region has predominantly positive views on Putin8217;s global leadership.

Putin, the authors say, appears to have become a divisive figure. Although his ratings have improved slightly since a 2007 poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, the large positive movement in certain countries such as China, where Putin8217;s ratings are up 17 points is balanced by negative movement in others such as the United States, where his ratings are down 21 points.

8220;While the worldwide mistrust of George Bush has created a global leadership vacuum, no alternative leader has stepped into the breach,8221; said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org.

8220;Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin are popular among some nations, but more mistrust them than trust them. Also the nations that trust them are not organized into any clusters that have the potential to be a meaningful bloc.8221;

In the Middle East, people are generally the most negative: Egyptians, Jordanians, Iranians and the Palestinians express little or no confidence in nearly all of the leaders rated.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, known for his 8220;bling-bling8221; presidency, fares poorly with 15 out of 19 nations rating his international leadership unfavourably.

On average, 25 per cent of those surveyed express confidence in Sarkozy to do right thing while 48 per cent express little or no confidence.