WASHINGTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The approval ratings for U.S. President George W. Bush have dropped to a new low, with only 32 percent of Americans saying they approve of his job performance, a new poll released on Monday showed.

    The survey, released by the Cable News Network (CNN) on its website, found that 60 percent of those polled said they disapproved the way the president was handling his job, and 8 percent said they did not know.

    In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll carried out April 29-May 1, 2005, Americans were split on their assessments of Bush's performance, with 48 percent saying they approved and 49 percent saying they disapproved.

    Americans were evenly split on whether Bush was "competent," with 47 percent saying yes, 47 percent saying no and 6 percent expressing no opinion, according to the new poll.

    Recent gas price hikes were partially responsible for Bush's sluggish job approval ratings, the poll found, as more than two-thirds of Americans - 69 percent - said recent increases in the cost of gasoline had caused them hardship, while only 28 percent said they had not, and 1 percent said they had no opinion.

    The poll was one of four conducted within the past 10 days thathave yielded similar results: a Pew Center poll carried out April 7-16 gave Bush a 35-percent approval rating; a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll carried out last Tuesday and Wednesday gave him a 33-percent approval rating; and an American Research Group poll carried out last Tuesday through Friday gave him a 34-percent approval rating.

    The poll of 1,012 adult Americans was carried out last Friday through Sunday, and had a sampling error of plus-or-minus three percentage points. Enditem