Washington, Dec 25: Less than a month before Barack Obama takes office, a new CNN/Opinion Research survey has found that 82 percent of Americans approve of how he is handling his transition to power.

The approval of more than eight in 10 Americans is up 3 percentage points from when CNN asked the same question at the beginning of December.

Fifteen percent of those surveyed disapprove of the way the president-elect is handling his transition, down 3 points from the last poll.

Obama''s approval is higher than George W. Bush eight years ago, the study found.

Bush had a 65 percent approval rating during his transition, and Bill Clinton was at 67 percent in 1992.

The poll was taken between Friday and Sunday, at the end of a period in which Obama has rolled out a high-profile cabinet line-up and hosted almost daily press conferences as economic turmoil deepens.

"Barack Obama is having a better honeymoon with the American public than any incoming president in the past three decades. He''s putting up better numbers, usually by double digits, than Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan or either George Bush on every item traditionally measured in transition polls," said Keating Holland, CNN''s polling director.

The survey also found that 56 percent of those asked backed Obama''s plans for a huge stimulus package to ignite the crisis-hit economy, with 42 percent against.

"Obama walks in with nearly twice the support on the economy that President-elect Clinton had in January 1993, and he beats Ronald Reagan as well," Holland adds. (ANI)