WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Americans express increasingly negative views of a wide range of major institutions, including the federal government, a new poll released on Tuesday showed.

    Favorable ratings for the federal government in Washington fell to 45 percent from 59 percent in February last year, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

    The public's impressions of the Congress were similar to those of the federal government: with 45 percent favorable and 45 percent unfavorable.

    President George W. Bush's job approval rating was at 40 percent, just above its all-time low of 38 percent earlier this month. Favorable opinions of the president stood at their lowest point - 46 percent - since he took office in 2001.

    The survey found that for the first time in Bush's presidency, slightly more Americans said they had a generally unfavorable opinion of him than a favorable opinion. Overall, just 18 percent said they had a "very favorable" opinion of the president, while 29 percent said they had a "very unfavorable" opinion of Bush.

    The poll also found that the public's favorable opinions of business corporations were at their lowest point - 45 percent - intwo decades. And in the face of high energy prices, only 20 percent of those polled expressed positive opinions of oil companies.

    Despite falling ratings for the federal government in general and Congress in particular, the military and the Supreme Court remained well regarded among a majority of the public, according to the poll.

    The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press was conducted among 2,006 Americans from Oct. 12-24, and has a sampling error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Enditem