MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Positive change of mood in US.

A majority of Americans believes that the country's military victory in Iraq will help with the war on terrorism and expressed optimism about the economy's recovery, according to an opinion poll released on Thursday.

The poll that was done between April 30 and May 4, involving 1,200 people revealed that the changing mood towards growing optimism has little to do with the massive tax cut proposed by the Bush administration and currently under consideration in Congress. Support for tax reductions was split almost evenly, and seven out of ten believe the cuts will only benefit some people.

Now that the war is over 43% of Americans believe economic conditions will begin to pick up, and 19% disagree with that optimism.

Meantime US Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow admitted before Congress that the recovery of the US economy was not sufficiently strong and expressed concern about the impact of the low performance of Europe and Japan.

Addressing the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, Mr. Snow remarked that "the economy was recovering", although "recovery is not strong".

Mr. Snow added that the expansion rate of the world economy is a matter of concern for everybody: "that's one of the reasons why our economy is not doing better".

The Secretary of the Treasury statements follow a similar pattern to those expressed by the Federal Reserve early this week when interest rates were left unchanged but there was also a warning that the slow expansion of the economy could lead to deflation.

US economy expanded at an annual rate of 1,6% this first quarter, unemployment reached 6%, an eight year record, and inflation began creeping in some services areas.

But in spite of the contrasting expectations a majority of Americans, 65% believe Mr. Bush has done a good job, which is beautiful music for the president's re-election aspiration.