Popular support of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has taken another dive, this time to the paltry figure of 18 percent, a survey by Kyodo News showed Wednesday.

In addition, disapproval of Mori's Cabinet, which suffered a major blow last week with the resignation of Mori's close confidante, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa, rose by 5 percentage points to 67 percent.

According to the poll, conducted Tuesday through telephone calls to 1,000 people nationwide, support for Mori's Cabinet fell by 8 percentage points from the previous survey in July.

It marks the first time public approval of Mori and his administration has dipped below the 20 percent line.

It is also the lowest approval rate and highest disapproval rate that Kyodo has recorded in telephone surveys since that of then Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in August 1993.

The dismal figures are another indication that the Mori Cabinet may be on thin ice as it approaches next summer's House of Councilors election. In fact, voices from within Mori's Liberal Democratic Party are openly suggesting that he step down.

Of the respondents, 59 percent said Mori would remain at the helm of government until to the Upper House elections, while 30 percent said they believe Mori would not be prime minister beyond the end of the year.

Only 7 percent said they believe Mori would still be in his current position after the Upper House polls.

Of those who said they support Mori's Cabinet, 45 percent said they did so because "there is no other appropriate person." This response was followed by 18 percent who said it was because he hailed from the LDP.