According to news reaching here, polling firm JBS Opinion Publica found that 54.2 percent of Salvadorians described Funes' performance as "good," 17.7 percent said it had been "very good" and 16 percent rated him as "excellent."

A total of 1,206 people were consulted in the survey, which was commissioned by Salvadorian daily El Diaro de Hoy between Dec. 26 and Dec. 30.

More than 37 percent of those polled said Funes, the nation's first left-wing president who took office on June 1, 2009, was fulfilling his campaign promises and a further 20.6 percent said he was changing the nation for the better.

Funes has vowed to build houses for the poor and fight crime in the country, which has the highest murder rate in Latin America.

Seventy-Five percent of respondents said that Funes was wise in distancing himself with the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the party that brought him to power.

The FMLN was a guerrilla movement during the nation's 1980 to 1992 civil war. Funes was the first FMLN candidate who had not been a guerrilla leader during the war.