COPENHAGEN, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Most Danes think Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is doing a good to average job at managing the row over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which have led to violent protests in many Muslim countries.
The majority of Danes are split, with 41.5 percent saying Rasmussen has handled the crisis well and about 40 percent saying he has done an average job, a poll of 1,037 people by Greens Analyseinstitut for business daily Borsen showed.
Some 16 percent disapprove of the way Rasmussen has reacted to the crisis which erupted last month as a result of 12 caricatures of the Prophet published by Jyllands-Posten last year. Rasmussen is now trying to build bridges to Muslims in Denmark and around the world.
The poll showed Rasmussen's Liberal Party would win 30.1 percent if an election were held today, 1.2 percentage points higher than at the beginning of the month.
Protests in the Middle East and other places against Danish interests has drawn new support to the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party, the country's third-biggest political party and an ally in parliament of Rasmussen's centre-right government.
The Danish People's Party polled 18 percent support, 3.5 points up from a poll at the beginning of the month, but largely unchanged from a poll a week ago.
