DALLAS - The Pew Research Center reported on Wednesday that the U.S. public’s awareness of the number of American military fatalities in Iraq has fallen sharply over the last few months, underscoring the waning interest in the war ahead of November’s presidential election.

Only 28 percent of adults now can correctly say that approximately 4,000 Americans have died in the Iraq war, the nonprofit research group said.

That’s down from August 2007, when 54 percent of those surveyed correctly identified the fatality level at that time — about 3,500 deaths.

The nationwide poll of 1,003 adults taken from Feb 28 to March 2 also found that more respondents underestimated than overestimated the number of fatalities. A plurality of 35 percent said there had been about 3,000 troop deaths, while another 11 percent said they thought just 2,000 have died. Around 23 percent put the number closer to 5,000.

Pew noted that the fall in fatality awareness comes as news coverage of the conflict diminishes.

Pew reported in late February that public attitudes toward the war in Iraq had turned more positive as the security situation there seemed to improve.

The polling group said this was a favorable development for expected Republican nominee John McCain, who is an unflinching backer of the war effort and was an early supporter of the “troop surge” there.

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both say they will begin withdrawing troops quickly if either wins the November election.