Goodwill towards the United States among Indians has dropped over the past year, a survey has shown.
The survey by the Pew Research Group also found that neighbouring Pakistan has begun to view the US more favourably over the past year.
Public support for US President George W Bush improved in India, while it remained unchanged in Pakistan, the survey said.
A total of 3,306 people were questioned in India and Pakistan.
The latest in a series of annual polls by the Pew Global Attitudes Project interviewed 17,000 respondents in 15 countries between 31 March and 14 May 2006.
Upswing in relations
The latest survey shows the worldwide reputation of the US continues to suffer over its prosecution of the "war on terror".
A sharp decline in the public perception of the US was apparent in India - goodwill fell from 71% to 56%.
Indian analyst C Uday Bhaskar told the Associated Press agency: "The sharp fall in opinion about the US is partly due to America's inability to end the Iraq war."
"Issues like Guantanamo, Palestine have also played negatively in the press."
However, Indians' confidence in President Bush's leadership increased - to 56%, up from 54% last year - at a time when only half of Americans and 30% of the British people gave their approval.
The results comes at a time when relations between India and US are on an upswing. The two countries have signed a landmark nuclear deal, which still has to be approved by the US Congress.
In neighbouring Pakistan, a key ally of US's fight against terrorism, there was an increase in goodwill towards the country, from 23% to 27%.
Confidence in President Bush's leadership remained unchanged at 10%.
Pakistan, however, joined other predominantly Muslim countries which were far less troubled by Tehran's nuclear programme - 52% of the people favoured Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
Pakistani people also appeared less concerned than Europeans and Americans by the victory of the Hamas militant group in Palestinian elections earlier this year - 87% felt that the group's victory was good for the Palestinian people.
(BBC)
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