March 9 (Bloomberg) -- George W. Bush's job-approval rating was up slightly this month from an all-time low in February, and remains the weakest of any second-term president since Harry Truman, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

The poll gave Bush an approval rating of 35 percent, up from the 32 percent last month that matched a previous low for the president. The latest result is the same as his mid-January rating and within the range of where it was for most of 2006.

Bush's popularity has been hurt by dwindling support for the war in Iraq, where more than 3,100 members of the U.S. military have died in four years. Bush in January announced the deployment of 21,500 additional troops to improve security in Iraq, which is threatened by civil war between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Thirty- two percent of those polled approved of his handling of the war, little changed from last month.

The poll also showed that Americans' mood about the direction of their country remains overwhelmingly negative, with 68 percent saying things are on the wrong track while 29 percent indicate the U.S. is moving in the right direction. Bush's handling of the economy was backed by 41 percent of respondents, also little changed from last month.

The Gallup Organization, which has been tracking presidential popularity in polls since the 1930s, rates Bush's numbers as the lowest for any president in the third March of his second term since Truman's 28 percent approval rating in 1951, AP reported. Truman's presidency coincided with the end of World War II and the postwar recovery.

President Bill Clinton had a 65 percent rating in March 1999, while President Ronald Reagan had 45 percent at this point in his second term in 1987, AP said.

Congress Lower

Americans' job-approval rating for Congress was 32 percent, just below that of the president, according to the poll. The figure has remained unchanged for the last three months following the Democratic sweep of the House and Senate in mid-term elections in November.

House Democrats said yesterday they will seek to force the withdrawal next year of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, a proposal that Bush's aides said he would veto.

The AP-Ipsos telephone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted March 5-7 and includes residents of all states except Alaska and Hawaii. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Lysaght in London at blysaght@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 9, 2007 06:03 EST