WASHINGTON -- Arab Americans in four states that are expected to be crucial in the Nov. 2 presidential election continue to be disappointed with President Bush, whom they helped to elect in 2000, a new Zogby International poll has found.

Yet those polled are also growing less enthusiastic for the candidacy of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, though they still favor him by a large margin.

Since late February, support for Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has fallen 5 percentage points among Arab Americans in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to the poll. Support for Bush has held steady but remains well below what he received in 2000. Support for Ralph Nader, a Lebanese American who is mounting an independent campaign much like his Reform Party candidacy in 2000, has fallen by 6 percentage points.

If the election were held today with a confrontation only between Bush and Kerry, Kerry would win 49 percent of the Arab American vote in the four states, while Bush would receive 30 percent, and "others" would get 21 percent. Once Nader is added to the mix, Kerry would earn 45 percent of the vote, Bush would gather 28 percent, and Nader, 14 percent.

In 2000, 46 percent of Arab Americans in the four battleground states voted for Bush, 29 percent for Gore and 13 percent for Nader.

James Zogby, head of the Arab American Institute, an active Democrat and the brother of pollster John Zogby, said Kerry "didn't help himself" when he recently backtracked from criticism of the barrier that Israel is building on the West Bank to separate Palestinian areas from Jewish settlements. Palestinians consider the fence an effort by the Israeli government to unilaterally set boundaries for a truncated Palestinian state.

Kerry also seconded Bush's agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policy to remove Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip while maintaining some in the West Bank permanently.

As a result, James Zogby said, many Arab Americans feel "less juiced up" and enthusiastic about supporting Kerry or organizing fundraisers for him.

"They thought he was their man," James Zogby said. "They want to be in love [with the candidate]. I think he can still find a nuanced middle ground. It was possible for [former President Bill] Clinton to leave office and have Jews and Arab Americans both say he was the best. I think a zero-sum game is a mistake."