The policies of US President George W. Bush and his administration have been destabilizing for Asia with Washington seen as a bully, according to a poll of senior foreign business executives working in the region.

Two-thirds of the 114 respondents polled by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) last week said Bush"s policies were not helping Asia. Only 10 percent held a positive view.

<##IMAGE##>"Perceptions of business people in Asia toward the policies of the Bush administration in Washington are far from favorable... the bottom line is that two-thirds of the respondents felt the overall impact on Asia of US policies under President Bush has been destabilizing," PERC said.

"One of the first concerns of people in other countries, including some of the closest allies of the US, was that Washington was becoming too much of a bully in a unipolar world," the Hong Kong-based risk consultancy said.

Almost 90 percent of the respondents felt Washington"s influence in the region was on the decline. Many worried the world"s only superpower would be handicapped by its involvement in the Iraq war, PERC said.

"Iraq will be a critical test... it is one thing to oust a dictator. However, it is another thing to fix the problems and create a civil society in a country that has been shaped by dictatorships or non-democratic regimes.

"It is not simply that Washington"s track record here is poor but that a growing number of people doubt the US government"s ability to see a strategy through to the end, and that the flip-flopping of policy can do more harm than if the original system was left untouched."

More than 2,000 US soldiers have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, forcing Bush to defend his case for waging war against the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein amid plummeting approval ratings at home.

Bush"s response to the trail of destruction left by Hurricane Katrina in the southern United States also left many to question if the United States was a model to look up to, according to the survey.

"The US might like to act like the world"s sole superpower, but its response to Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters in the US have not impressed anyone with US efficiency or competence," PERC said.

On Sino-US relations, half of the respondents rated ties as bad. More than 60 percent felt the US-China relationship was deteriorating.

PERC said this perception was due to Washington"s tendency to lecture Beijing about its human rights record while pushing Beijing to fix the yuan exchange rate to help ease a chronic US deficit.

With regard to India, the region"s other emerging economic power alongside China, most of those questioned felt ties with the US were good, a reflection of Washington"s efforts to court New Delhi as a strategic partner, PERC said.

"The Bush administration has been much more aggressive than any of its predecessors in courting India," it said.

"It has sought to portray India as a strategic partner in combating Islamic militancy and balancing China"s growing economic and military power."

Relations between the US and Indonesia, the world"s most populous Muslim nation, were regarded as " very sensitive" with ties complicated by many issues, mainly the opposition by Indonesians to the Iraq invasion.

"This is not a relationship either side can take for granted," the survey concluded

Ties with Japan, Washington"s closest ally in Asia, were seen as good by an overwhelming majority of respondents. The same went for Singapore, a staunch supporter of the US in its "war against terror".

Bush was due to leave for a trip to Asia Monday, visiting Japan before attending an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea. Following that, he goes to China and Mongolia.