WASHINGTON, April 1, 2008 (AFP) - A majority of Americans believe the US government should not assist large investment banks and securities firms who have sustained hefty losses from troubled mortgage investments, a poll showed Tuesday.

The results of a Zogby Interactive poll, released Tuesday, show 68 percent of those surveyed were opposed to federal bailouts for ailing Wall Street financial firms holding soured mortgage portfolios.

The Federal Reserve last month agreed to back JPMorgan Chase's takeover of stricken investment bank Bear Stearns, for just over one billion dollars, with government guarantees of 29 billion dollars in return for collateral, largely consisting of mortgage investments held by Bear Stearns.

The US central bank and the Treasury backed the takeover in early March as fears spread through Wall Street that Bear Stearns, one of the country's largest investment banks, was on the verge of collapse due to its stricken finances.

Some critics of the deal have asked why the government has not helped out other industries or companies facing financial peril.

The Zogby poll, which was conducted after the news of Bear Stearns takeover received widespread publicity in the United States, found that just 25 percent of those canvassed believed that the government should help financial firms struggling to manage hefty losses related to the US housing downturn.

A majority, 54 percent, said they also did not support government assistance for the tens of thousands of Americans who are facing foreclosure on their homes.

A minority, 43 percent, of those polled said the government should help distressed homeowners who could lose their properties to foreclosure.

Two in three voters, 67 percent, said they do think that tax rebate checks will give the US economy a needed boost in coming months. Thirty-six percent of those polled expressed strong disagreement over the rebate checks.

The government is sending rebate checks to millions of Americans as part of a giant 168-billion-dollar economic stimulus plan approved by Republican President George W. Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress. The wealthiest Americans will not receive the one off checks under the plan.

When asked what are the problems they view as the biggest threat to the US economy, 19 percent of respondents cited the credit and subprime mortgage crisis, 18 percent cited high gasoline prices and 17 percent cited the weak dollar which has tumbled in value in the past year.

Subprime home loans, granted to Americans with poor credit, have experienced high default and foreclosure rates in the past year.

A growing number of economists believe the world's largest economy has already fallen into a recession after economic growth moderated sharply during the last quarter of 2007 to an annualized 0.6 percent pace.

The Fed has slashed its key short-term interest rate by an aggressive three percentage points to 2.25 percent since September as it fights to bolster economic momentum and avert an economic downturn.

Other respondents, 16 percent, said their top economic concerns were the mounting costs tied to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while 14 percent cited inflation on consumer goods, including food prices.

The interactive Zogby survey of 5,036 likely voters, ahead of the looming November US presidential election, was conducted March 26-28, 2008. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.