TOKYO, JAPAN - JAPANESE Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has failed to get much of a ratings boost from hosting last week's Group of Eight summit, with his popularity still close to record lows, a poll showed on Monday.

Support for the Fukuda cabinet was at just 21.7 per cent, with disapproval of 61.2 per cent, according to a weekend survey by Fuji Television Network.

The figure is only just above a low of 19.8 per cent in a poll by a different media organisation in May.

Mr Fukuda, who took office in September, used the G8 summit in a spa resort in northern Japan to try to highlight Japan's efforts to tackle climate change and ease poverty in Africa.

The G8 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - agreed to at least halve global carbon emissions by 2050, an agreement that 52.5 per cent of the poll respondents supported.

According to a separate poll by Asahi Television, however, more than half of those surveyed said they did not think that the summit achieved anything, compared to 29 per cent who thought that it did.

Even so, the Japanese government insisted Mr Fukuda's G8 summit was a success.

'It is very clear that Prime Minister Fukuda was able to bring out international leadership,' top government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told reporters.

The government is under growing pressure from a resurgent opposition and has faced particular criticism for introducing a new medical insurance plan that many older voters find confusing and worry will make them pay more. -- AFP