WASHINGTON, July 23: Two recent opinion polls show that an increasing number of American voters disapprove of the way President George W. Bush is handling the economy and feel that it is time for a new face in the White House.

The plummeting stock market and recent accounting scandals surrounding large corporations appear to have shaken their faith in the president, although most Americans still approve of the way he is conducting the ‘war on terror’.

The first poll, conducted over the weekend by public opinion firm Zogby International of New York said that 47 per cent of likely voters believed that President Bush deserved re-election, compared to 32 per cent who said it’s time for a change.

The firm surveyed 1,003 likely voters nationwide, reporting a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Another survey, conducted during the same period, says that the plummeting stock market and recent accounting scandals appear to have significantly damaged the US president.

Forty six per cent of 1,014 adults questioned by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News said they disapproved of the job Bush was doing specifically on the problems of the financial markets and major corporations.

The second poll — also conducted over the same period — reported a margin of error of 3.1 per cent.

The two surveys gave substantially different pictures of Bush’s approval in general, which could be the result of the NBC poll’s overall focus on economic issues, says a report on the two surveys released by MSNBC.

Bush’s positive approval rating in the Zogby poll, 62 per cent, was unchanged from a similar Zogby poll last week, as was his negative rating, 38 per cent, the report says.