Support remains high for Obama in Europe

President Barack Obama waves as he walks across the South Lawn on his return via helicopter from his summer vacation to the White House in Washington September 6, 2009.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europeans overwhelmingly support U.S. President Barack Obama's foreign policy but his presidency has not lived up to all their expectations, an opinion poll published on Wednesday showed.

The annual Transatlantic Trends survey, conducted between June 9 and July 1 in 12 European countries and the United States, found Central and Eastern Europeans were less enthusiastic than Western Europeans.

It also showed many Europeans want their nation's troops pulled out of Afghanistan, despite Obama's planned U.S. troop buildup, and would oppose the use of military force against Iran if diplomatic efforts failed to stop it securing nuclear arms.

The good news for Obama, whose ratings have dropped in the United States since he took over from George W. Bush in January, was that 77 percent of respondents in the European Union and Turkey back his handling of international affairs.

This compared with 19 percent support for Bush in a similar survey a year go.

"We see a remarkable shift in transatlantic opinion from the previous administration," said Craig Kennedy, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think-tank which sponsored the poll with Italian foundation Compagnia di San Paolo.

Last year's survey showed Europeans had high hopes of Obama's presidency. He received a rapturous reception when he visited Germany in 2008 as a presidential candidate, and support levels remain particularly high there.

But this year's poll found only 60 percent of Central and East Europeans support his handling of foreign affairs, considerably less than the 86 percent in Western Europe.

Only 25 percent of Central and East Europeans believed relations between Europe and the United States had improved in the past year, compared to 43 percent of West Europeans.

"Overall, the Obama presidency has not yet lived up to expectations for a post-Bush America," the survey's authors said in a commentary.

DIFFERENCES ON POLICY

They said differences remained between Europe and the United States on various policy issues and added: "If these differences cannot be bridged, Obama's popularity will likely suffer. And his honeymoon may be short-lived."

The authors said support among Central and East Europeans was possibly lower because of concerns there about Russia's intentions and because they had enjoyed relatively good ties with the United States under Bush.

The survey found 63 percent of Europeans were pessimistic about stabilizing Afghanistan, where European forces are among the NATO troops battling an Islamist insurgency. Fifty-five percent of West Europeans and 69 percent of East Europeans wanted cuts in the number of troops there or a full withdrawal.

Fifty-three percent of Europeans said they would support increasing diplomatic pressure on Iran if it acquired nuclear weapons, but ruled out using military force. That compared with 47 percent of Americans who would back using military force.

The survey polled about 1,000 people, mainly by telephone, in each of the 12 European countries and the United States. The margin for error is plus or minus three percentage points.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)