Bush, Musharraf least trusted leaders: poll

A new survey shows that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his US counterpart George W Bush are among the world's least trusted leaders along with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his US counterpart George W Bush are among the world's least trusted leaders along with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a new survey in 20 countries, including India, shows.

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Musharraf has the poorest ratings around the world. Only in China, 37 per cent of the people feel that he inspires confidence as a leader, outweighing negative views (30 per cent), the poll conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.Org found.

Nigeria is divided over the Pakistani leader and the other 18 nations lean negative.

Just two countries, India and Nigeria give Bush a positive ratings while Thailand is divided. Sixteen of the 20 countries surveyed say that they lack confidence in the US President. Only Musharraf is rated negatively in more nations. Bush also got the highest average percentage of negative ratings (67 per cent).

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is the only world leader to receive largely positive ratings.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, though relatively new to the world stage, gets positive ratings in six nations, more than any other chief of state.

Indians remain divided on Chinese President Hu, who also failed to get the confidence vote in 13 countries. Only five -Nigeria, South Korea, Iran, Azerbaijan and Ukraine- tend to be positive, according to the survey which was done in countries comprising 60 per cent of the world population.