WASHINGTON, Dec. 21: Americans who believe that the war in Iraq was not worth fighting now outnumber supporters of the US invasion, says a survey released on Tuesday. The ABC News/Washington Post poll also found that the war has driven down the ratings of both President Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Fifty-six percent of those questioned agreed that the cost of the war outweighed the benefits and was not worth it. This is for the first time since the US invasion of Iraq three years ago that a poll shows a solid majority saying that the war was a mistake.

This reflects a gain of seven percentage points from a poll conducted in July and shows a gradual increase in the war's unpopularity. On the question of whether Iraq is prepared for elections next month, 58 per cent of respondents believed the violence-plagued country is not ready.

Nonetheless, 60 per cent want elections to go forward as scheduled - even though 54 per cent do not expect honest results with a "fair and accurate vote count." Fifty-four percent are not confident elections will produce a stable government that can rule effectively.

Fifty-seven per cent said they disapproved of the way President Bush was handling the situation in Iraq and 53 per cent disapprove of the way Mr Rumsfeld was handling his job.

Earlier this week, several Republican lawmakers expressed doubts about Mr Rumsfeld's handling of the war and some Democrats urged Mr Bush to fire him. More than half of the poll respondents - 52 per cent - also said Mr Rumsfeld should be replaced. Only 35 per cent of respondents approved of his job performance.

President Bush, however, defended his defence secretary at a news conference on Monday, saying the Pentagon chief was "doing a really fine job". According to the poll, Mr Bush's approval rating on Iraq dropped to 42 per cent, down from 60 per cent a year ago.

Fewer than half said they believed there had been significant progress toward restoring order in Iraq, down from 51 per cent last summer. While a slight majority believed the Iraq war contributed to the long-term security of the United States, 70 per cent of Americans think these gains have come at an "unacceptable" cost in military casualties.

Seven weeks since his reelection victory over Democrat John F. Kerry and four weeks before his second inauguration, the poll suggests that the president remained acutely vulnerable in public opinion.

The public splits down the middle on Mr Bush's overall job performance, with 48 per cent approving while 49 per cent disapprove. By contrast, President Bill Clinton had an approval of 60 per cent in a poll taken just before he began his second term.

The Post-ABC results are consistent with other newly-released surveys. Time magazine, which this week named Mr Bush its 'Person of the Year,' found that 49 per cent approved of his job performance, little changed from before the election.

A Pew Research Centre survey, meanwhile, showed that the angry divisions about Mr Bush that marked the 2004 campaign were hardly bridged by the election's end. A total of 1,004 randomly selected Americans were interviewed between Dec 16 and Dec 19 for the Post/ABC News poll. The margin of sampling error for the results is plus or minus three percentage points.