Obama most trusted world leader: poll

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama is the most trusted leader in the world, a survey conducted in 20 nations indicated.
The poll, conducted between April 4 to June 12 by WorldPublicOpinion.org, found 61 per cent of those surveyed expressed a lot or some confidence in Obama. The finding, released Monday, comes one year after former president George W Bush was found in the survey to be one of the world’s least trusted leaders.
However, in Pakistan public confidence in Obama was 30pc, while 62pc had no trust.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ranked second in the current poll. The survey said Ban’s evaluations across all countries polled were positive.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin registered the most negative confidence ratings among all world leaders.
The public in six nations expressed confidence in Ahmadinejad led by two Muslim-majority nations; Pakistan (75pc) and the Palestinian territories (57pc). However, other Muslim-majority nations expressed a lack of confidence, including Iraq (56pc), Azerbaijan (59pc), Egypt (57pc), and Turkey (48pc). Indians also leaned positive (42 to 30pc) about Ahmadinejad.
Public confidence in Chinese President Hu Jintao presents a mixed picture around the globe. In Asia, public in most nations expressed confidence in the Chinese leader such as in Pakistan (80pc), India (50pc) and in South Korea (by a narrow margin, 51pc to 47pc).
WorldPublicOpinion.org - a research project utilising research centres around the world and managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland - surveyed 19,224 respondents in nations that account for 62 per cent of the global population, including China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia. The poll was also conducted in Mexico, Germany, Great Britain, France, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and South Korea.
“At this moment, Obama occupies a unique position in the eyes of the world,” said Stephen J Weber of WorldPublicOpinion.org. “His communication skills and the change he represents create an open door for him to engage people around the world.”
Margins of error range from three percentage points to four percentage points.