U.S. President Barack Obama still holds high approval rating among Americans, but the economic stimulus package he is trying to push through Congress is less popular, according to a new poll released on Monday.

Seventy-six percent of those questioned in the CNN survey gave Obama a thumbs-up on his job performance while 23 percent disapproved.

However, the debate over the over 800-billion-U.S.-dollar stimulus bill appears to have split the public, with a slight majority of 54 percent favoring the bill while 45 percent opposing it.

A partisan divide is evident as 75 percent Democrats support the bill, but that number drops to 51 percent for Independents and just 32 percent for Republicans.

In other words, nearly seven in 10 Republicans oppose the bill.

As the poll was released, Obama was in Elkhart, Indiana to promote the stimulus bill.

Later in the day he's holding a prime-time news conference from the White House at 20:00 eastern time (0100 GMT Tuesday) to pitch the plan.

Two weeks ago, an 819-billion-dollar version of the stimulus plan passed the House of Representatives with no Republican support.

In a key procedural vote, the U.S. Senate decided on Monday afternoon to put the stimulus bill to a final vote scheduled for Tuesday.

The revised version of the bill, a result of compromise following days of heated debate in the Senate, is expected to include more tax cuts and less government spending.

Democrats support the bill, while all but three Republican senators appear to oppose the legislation.

The survey was conducted on Feb. 7 and 8, with 806 adult Americans questioned by telephone.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2009)