Bulgaria's Government continued loosing public support in February, a survey by Alfa Research polling agency, carried by Dnevnik daily on March 6, showed.

Only 23 per cent of the respondents said they approved the Government's performance, down from 31 per cent a month earlier. The share of respondents who had a negative opinion on the Cabinet went up to 70 per cent, compared with 66 per cent in January.

Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, who is also the leader of the senior partner in the ruling coalition, Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), lost five per cent of people's support, according to the survey, with the public approval of other ministers staying unchanged.

Culture Minister Stefan Danailov, Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin,  Education Minister Daniel Vulchev and Finance Minister Plamen Oresharksi enjoyed the highest approval, with Disaster Management Minister Emel Etem, Social Minister Emilia Maslarova and Interior Minister Roumen Petkov at the bottom of the rankings.

Among the ruling parties, BSP lost the most support in February, dropping two percentage points to 18 per cent support. The other two parties in the ruling coalition kept their positions from January - the National Movement for Stability and Progress had two per cent support while the Movement for Rights and Freedoms had 7.1 per cent.

Despite the drop, BSP is still seen as the main opponent to the opposition right-wing party Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (abbreviated as GERB in Bulgarian) of Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov.

GERB was the only party to register a increase in public's support, which grew by three percentage points to 27.8 per cent and topping the voter preferences, even it has just one MP in Parliament. The other big four opposition parties combined for the support of a total of 10.6 per cent of respondents in February.

The respondents were split evenly on whether snap polls should be held in Bulgaria, with 29 per cent in favour and 28 per cent against.

Alfa Research interviews 1010 people on February 23-28 for its survey.