WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush leads Democrat John Kerry, 52 percent to 41 percent, while independent Ralph Nader got 3 percent in a national poll taken during the Republican National Convention that ended Thursday.

The Time magazine poll of 926 likely voters was taken Aug. 31-Sept 2, during the convention and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Bush had 46 percent, Kerry had 44 percent and Nader 5 percent in a Time poll taken just before the convention.

Veteran pollsters say that polls taken during convention weeks should be viewed with caution because they are conducted at a point when public opinion is focused on only one party and a bounce in the numbers could be short-lived.

However, they also noted that polls taken during conventions can sometimes foreshadow a longer lasting bounce. Much of the poll was taken before President Bush’s speech on Thursday night.

Bush leads Kerry in areas like handling terrorism, handling Iraq, and providing strong leadership. Bush and Kerry were about even on handling the economy, an improvement for Bush compared with other recent polls.

Kerry campaign aides questioned the size of the Bush lead and pointed to other national polls taken in recent days that show the race is close.

Bush campaign officials were not immediately available to comment.

AP-ES-09-03-04 1721EDT