WASHINGTON - A new poll finds that most Western Europeans believe that China has either supplanted or will supplant the US as the world's leading power.

The findings are part of a 22-nation poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

The poll finds that despite Europe's doubts about the American projection of power, the US retains a positive image in most of the countries surveyed. That continues a trend that began when Barack Obama became president in 2009.

 The poll was conducted March 18 to May 15 in the US and 21 other countries. The margin of sampling error ranged from plus or minus 2.5 percentage points in China to 5 percentage points in Israel.