WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Two weeks before the Nov. 2 Election Day, American voters hold a sharply critical view of President George W. Bush's record in office, but they have strong reservations about Senator John Kerry, leaving the presidential race in a tie, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll published on Tuesday.

    Bush's job approval rating was at 44 percent, one of the lowest during his tenure, and a majority of voters said they disapproved the way he had handled the economy and the war in Iraq, and that his tax cuts had favored the wealthy.

    Voters said that Kerry would do a better job of preserving Social Security, creating more jobs and ending the war in Iraq. But a majority of Americans continued to see Kerry as an untrustworthy politician who would say what he thought people wanted to hear. More than half respondents said they considered him liberal.

    The poll found that the two candidates each drawing 46 percent of all registered voters in a head-to-head race. Among likely voters in a two-way race, Bush had 47 percent, with 46 percent forKerry.

    The poll surveyed 1,048 adults, including 931 registered voters,last Thursday through Sunday after Bush and Kerry had the last of their three debates, and had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

    A new Washington Post poll published on Tuesday, however, foundBush's job approving rating at 54 percent, and the president was holding a slender lead over Kerry, 50 percent to 47 percent, with independent candidate Nader getting 1 percent of the likely votes.

    The poll showed that while Bush had gained ground against Kerryin the days after the final debate last Wednesday, his current lead, which was within the survey's margin of sampling error, was smaller than the advantage he enjoyed heading into the debates, foreshadowing a fierce battle over the next two weeks.

    Among registered voters, Bush led by a single percentage point in the latest poll. In 13 battleground states, the poll showed it was Kerry with the lead, 50 percent to 46 percent.

    The survey, which canvassed 2,402 adults, including 2,130 self-described registered voters and 1,656 likely voters from last Thursday to Sunday and had a margin of error of three percentage points, suggested that the economy and Iraq were slowly emerging as the top two voting concerns while concerns about terrorism might be fading slightly. Enditem