By Rob Taylor CANBERRA, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The Iraq war has knocked Australians' approval of U.S. leadership in world affairs to a 30-year low, while a Chinese charm offensive appears to be making friends "Down Under", according to a survey released on Wednesday. Adding to pre-election pressure on the government's staunch backing for the Iraq war, a study of attitudes towards the United States found that 60 percent of those surveyed do not believe Washington can deal responsibly with global problems. U.S. President George W. Bush, who tried to bolster Prime Minister John Howard's flagging re-election hopes at a Sydney meeting last month, was the focus of disapproval, drawing a negative response from two-thirds of respondents. "President Bush has a serious image problem in Australia," said the survey by the U.S. Studies Centre at Sydney University. Howard is well behind opposition Labor leader Kevin Rudd in polls ahead of a national election expected within weeks, with government support for the Iraq war a major issue. Rudd has promised to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq. Australia has 1,500 soldiers in and around Iraq. The survey found that 64 percent of people opposed Australia's involvement in the Iraq war and 48 percent wanted foreign policy unwound from U.S. interests. Almost three-quarters thought deployments to Iraq had made the country a bigger terrorist target, placing them at odds with Howard's view that the war had made the country safer. "I think its inevitable when you have a long engagement like that, that the public will grow weary," Howard told local radio. "My responsibility is to argue a case that I believe is right even though it doesn't top the popularity charts." But a finding that 79 percent of people considered the U.S. alliance to be important or very important highlighted that most Australians looked warmly upon the United States, but not its government, said the U.S. Studies Centre's Alan Dupont. "Australians are clearly able to differentiate between the foreign policy of a particular U.S. administration and the enduring strategic value of the U.S. alliance, which still receives overwhelming support despite widespread opposition to the Iraq conflict," said Dupont. Three-quarters of respondents saw global warming as equally serious or more serious than Islamic fundamentalism as a world problem, while 69 percent said both the United States and Australia should reverse opposition to greenhouse gas targets. "The survey suggests Australian attitudes towards the U.S. are changing in important ways, notably: a desire for greater independence within the alliance; scepticism about the benefits of the Free Trade Agreement; and Washington's capacity to manage global problems such as climate change," said Dupont. In contrast, 57 percent of respondents had a favourable opinion of China -- demand from which is driving Australia's current commodities export boom. "Views of China have improved because it has opened up, it's become a major trading partner and it's been a status-quo, responsible power," said Dupont.
