As the first presidential debate is around the corner, US President George W. Bush has enjoyed a six-percentage point lead over the Democratic nominee, John Kerry, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll and interviews with voters in battleground states.

The incumbent president won 51 percent of voters support while Kerry trailed Bush by six points, with 45 percent of voters expressing their support for him, the poll said.

The poll was conducted between Sept. 23 to 26 among 1,204 randomly selected adults nationwide, with a margin of sampling error being plus or minus three percentage points.

On the job Bush is doing on the economy and Iraq, the approval rating stood at 47 percent while the disapproval rating was 50 percent.

On the question of if the Iraqi war was worth fighting or not, 51 percent of those polled said that the war was not worth fighting, with 46 percent saying yes.

Over the past few days, the Bush campaign team has stepped up its attacks on Kerry, who in the Republican campaign ads was portrayed as a flip-flopper on Iraq and a weaker leader in wartime who cannot be trusted.

Bush's relentless attacks on Kerry have badly damaged the image of the Democratic nominee, The Washington Post said.

But, the paper added, Kerry's problems are also partly of his own making. Despite repeated efforts to flesh out his proposals on Iraq, terrorism and other issues, he has yet to break through to undecided voters as someone who has clear plans for fixing the country's biggest problems.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2004)