Fuelled by the ongoing scandal surrounding disgraced former Rep. Mark Foley and the Iraq war, new polls show U.S. President George Bush and his Republican Party are on shaky ground with midterm elections just weeks away.

In the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times, an unnamed former House page claims he had sex with Foley after leaving the Capitol Hill program.

The news is the latest in a slew of negative publicity surrounding Foley's salacious e-mails to teenage pages that critics say were too easily dismissed by his Republican counterparts.

The man, who was 21 at the time, said the sexual encounter followed electronic correspondence between him and Foley, both which occurred after he had completed his time as a page.

In the instant message correspondence, Foley allegedly told the man: "I always knew you were a player but I don't fool around with pages."

While the account is consistent with Foley's claims that he didn't have sex with minors, the revelations show that he was smitten by the underage pages.

In the messages, Foley, using the screen name Maf54, tells the page that years earlier he had looked at the boy's crotch to see if he "had an erection in his tight white pants," reported the Times.

He also guessed to the page about the size of the other males' penises -- suspecting that one youth was "well hung."

The Times said the page provided them with saved conversations on his laptop as proof.

The page didn't give Foley his instant messaging identity but speculated that the congressman found it in a directory listing of former pages.

While he never notified his supervisors, the man said Foley had developed a reputation among fellow pages and that he'd garnered the nickname "Triple F," for "Florida Fag Foley."

In one 2000 message, Foley asked about the length and direction of the former page's erection.

The page said the actual sexual encounter happened at a spare bedroom in Foley's Washington home after the pair enjoyed pizza and wine in the backyard.

"He clearly used his position, but who hasn't?" the page told the Times.

Political fallout

The scandal's political fallout along with the war in Iraq has become a problem for Bush's approval ratings and for Republicans seeking reelection in the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Unlike Canadian federal elections, Americans vote for Congressional representatives on a fixed date every two years.

A third of Senators are also elected -- they serve six-year-terms, and either 33 or 34 of 100 seats are put up for grabs (this year it's 33).

In the new polls by Time and Newsweek, both show a majority of Americans now want Democrats to win control of congress next month.

Time showed 54 per cent of registered voters would choose a Democratic candidate (compared to 39 per cent Republican) while Newsweek showed 53 per cent would vote in a Democratic candidate (compared to 35 per cent Republican).

Even candidates who were likely to win, like Rep. Tom Reynolds, have seen their voter support plunge.

Reynolds, who has come under criticism for not doing enough to protect a page from Foley, is now trailing his Democratic opponent by double digits, according to a paper in his district.

The numbers prompted Reynolds to issue an apology in a new $200,000 campaign ad. "Looking back, more should have been done and for that, I am sorry," he says in the ad.

The White House is also being punished by two issues: the Foley scandal and the Iraq war.

The Newsweek poll pegs Bush's approval ratings at a new low of 33 per cent, down three points from August. Time had Bush's approval rating at 36 per cent, down from 38 per cent in August.

Almost 60 per cent of those polled by Newsweek say they are disappointed in how Bush is handling the presidency.

They also gave U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld only a 30 per cent approval rating with 48 per cent calling for his resignation.

Specific to the Iraq war, 66 per cent told Newsweek that their country is not safer from terrorist threats as a result of the war, while 58 per cent didn't think the U.S. can establish a stable democracy in the country.

Further, showing a majority for the first time, 58 per cent think the Bush administration misled the public about Iraq, reported Newsweek.

With files from The Associated Press