Obama still a rock star in Europe

Washington, Mar.31 (ANI): As President Barack Obama heads to London for the G-20 economic summit, most Europeans are excited at the prospect of his arrival personally.

Obama was the most popular and most influential world leader in a February Harris Interactive survey of 6,299 adults in Western Europe and the United States, topping the Dalai Lama in popularity and Russia's Vladimir Putin in influence.

More than 80 percent of those polled in Italy, France, Spain and Germany said they held either a "very good" or "somewhat good" opinion of the new American president. At the same time, 71 percent of those polled in the United States reported similar sentiments.

"Europeans find him to be very a stimulating and uplifting character in the area they look to for America to provide: Leadership which Europeans can intellectually and morally agree," said one expert.

A January BBC World Service poll of 17 countries found that 67 percent of those surveyed believed Obama's election would lead to improved international relations.

Only 5 percent said his election would worsen relations.

Obama was very popular throughout the world during the presidential campaign. A year ago, in a Pew Global Attitudes poll in 23 foreign countries, all but two of the countries surveyed expressed more confidence in the prospect of a Democratic Obama presidency that of his Republican rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain.

The only country where McCain enjoyed a major lead over Obama during the summer was Israel, where McCain held a 26 percent lead in a poll conducted by the Peace Index Project in July. (ANI)