But many of the region's business leaders would prefer it if John Kerry were kept out of the White House and are particularly put off by the Democra|'s more protectionist trade stance.

"Bush and who? John who?" asked Desy Darman, a civil servant in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

"(Bush) is maybe too arrogan| toward the les{ developed coun|ries. It's probably better to replace him," Darman said, reflecting strong anti-Bush sentiment among Asian people which, more than Kerry's policies, colours views of the US election in this vast region.

Nearly everyone has an opinion, mostly negative, of Jush's US-led war on Iraq and no| just in Muslim-dominated Indonmsia, Malaysia and Pakistan.

Surveys in Japan, which has sent troops to the war-torn country, show almost 80 percent of people oppose the war and a recent online poll there showed 56 percent of 1,730 responses favoured Kerry against 21.5 percent for Bush.

"Many of the correspondents disapprove of Bush in connection with the war in Iraq," said the site's operator, Yoshiaki Hirai.

Australians also backed Kerry -- despite giving prime minister John Howard, Bush's friend and ally in Iraq, a fourth term in the country's elections last week.

A recent poll conducted as part of a global exercise involving 10 newspapers around the world saw 54 percent of respondents in Australia supporting Kerry while only 28 percent backed Bush.

Some Asians -- particularly in India, Thailand and China -- are apathetic about the US poll, but others have strong views crystallised by US foreign policy issues that affect them at home: the war on terror; economic policies on protectionism and outsourcing; and potential regional flashpoints such as North Korea and Taiwan.

The Republican incumbent is viewed by the region's conservative business leaders as strong on the economy, while Kerry scores more highly with the public, media and intelligentsia on international issues.

In Pakistan, a key ally on the frontline of the war on terror, mostly Muslim citizens widely oppose US-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, but are not totally anti-Bush.

"It is an assumption, that may not be fully true, that Republicans are pro-Pakistan," political analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi told AFP, adding "there is a general feeling that if Kerry wins he will pursue nuclear non-proliferation and democracy issues more strongly than Bush."

In Indonesia, home to the world's largest Islamic community and the scene of three major bombings blamed on an al-Qaeda-linked group, there is widespread interest in the poll, according to political analyst Sudjati Djiwandono.

"I think in terms of popularity many support John Kerry because the name of Bush is closely connected to with the attack on Iraq," Sudjati said.

Surveys in the Philippines, a former US colony, show it is one of the few countries where the local populace supports Bush.

"If Filipinos were voting for the American president, George W. Bush would have this election in the bag," wrote political scientist Alex Magno, an adviser to President Gloria Arroyo, in a newspaper column.

"Filipinos... have a frontline appreciation of the threat posed by international terrorism," Magno said, citing attacks by al-Qaeda-linked militants on Philippines soil.

South Koreans, concerned chiefly with US policy towards North Korea, are split over Bush's perceived hawkish stance.

"Conservatives definitely want Bush to be reelected, while liberals who support peaceful engagement with North Korea oppose him and think inter-Korean relations will be better if Kerry wins," said Lee Nae-Young, political science professor at Korea University.

Along with business leaders in Japan, Korean executives fear a Kerry win will spark trans-Pacific trade friction, while India's booming information technology sector is wary of Kerry's promise to fight outsourcing of American jobs.

Indians generally are uninspired by Bush or Kerry, unable to decide who they dislike least, says S. Sudeshana, professor of political science at Delhi University. "It is Hobson's choice. One feels sorry for the United States... and the rest of the world.

"

Many ordinary Chinese display a similar apathy. "We common people don't pay too much attention," said Li Wenxia, a Beijing woman. "That's something we leave for the leadership."

An unsigned opinion piece on the People's Daily website said Kerry might adopt a tough position on the two crucial issues of Sino-US trade and Taiwan.

Taipei, however, reportedly fears Kerry will swing the other way, appointing pro-Beijing officials.

Kerry, who has played up his military service in Vietnam, can count that country on his side, even though most Vietnamese have never heard of him.

The communist government has studiously avoided commentary, but one Vietnamese diplomat told AFP: "I think Vietnam would support Kerry because he has travelled many times to Vietnam and he understands better the situation here than Bush, who is a war-mongering president."

Meanwhile, the New York Times and several smaller US papers endorsed John Kerry for president yesterday, while the Dallas Morning News went to bat for Texas native George W. Bush.

The Times was the first US daily of national influence to unveil its choice. The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal have yet to do so.

Kerry's "wide knowledge and clear thinking" are the makings of "a great chief executive," the Times said in a lengthy editorial 16 days before Americans go to the polls on November 2.

While Kerry's candidacy initially seemed mostly to tap into public dissatisfaction with US President George W. Bush, over time "we have come to know Kerry as more than just an alternative to the status quo," the Times said.

With early voting beginning in some places Monday, a raft of smaller and regional US dailies also took sides Sunday, most of them lining up behind the Democrat from Massachusetts.

The Dallas Morning News, from Bush's home state of Texas, was an exception, declaring: "Americans want and need a president with a backbone steeled by courage and a heart tendered by compassion."

The editors said they were "disappointed" by his failure to rein in domestic spending, the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, and strained relationships abroad.

But "this is not the time for America to go wobbly. This is not the time for Americans to abandon their president."

Several other papers joined the Times in backing Kerry -- the Dayton Daily News of Dayton, Ohio, the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Miami Herald.

The paper from Boston, Massachusetts, Kerry's home town, said it had long seen his core strengths as "an ability to see complex problems in new, often prescient, ways and a willingness to seek collaborative solutions."

San Francisco is a known bastion of liberalism, but the other papers are located in so-called swing states with large numbers of undecided voters and strong voices in the Electoral College, which ultimately decides the US presidential election.

The Miami paper saw in Bush "a stubborn refusal to accept the uncomfortable facts and a simplistic approach to complicated issues."

The Minnesota paper said Bush had "plunged the nation into debt and injected the government into the most personal of family matters" and "governed with mendacity and secrecy."