Elon, N.C. — About 65 percent of North Carolina residents disapprove of the way President George W. Bush is handling the war in Iraq, according to the latest Elon University poll.

But the number is a slight improvement for the president since April, when 70 percent of respondents expressed unhappiness with his management of the conflict.

The increase in support for the president’s war-handling coincides with a small increase in the number of people who approve of the president’s overall job performance.

Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed either approve or strongly approve of Bush’s performance, compared with 36 percent of respondents from the Elon University Poll conducted April 16-19, 2007.

The poll, conducted Sept. 24-27 by the Elon University Institute for Politics and Public Affairs, surveyed 664 North Carolina residents. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent.