The Associated Press Friday, January 18, 2002; 7:48 PM

Almost two-thirds of Americans in a new CBS News poll think the Bush administration is either hiding something or lying about its relationship with Enron, the failed energy trading company that has been a big contributor to the president and to other politicians from both parties. The poll was of 1,030 adults was taken Jan. 15-17 and released Friday. It had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Among the poll findings:

–Almost two-thirds – 63 percent – think the Bush administration isn't telling everything it knows about its relationship with Enron. That group breaks up this way – a fifth think the Bush administration is lying about its relationship with Enron, while almost half – 44 percent – think the administration is hiding something.

–Just over half said the company's calls to the Bush administration for help were wrong, and just over half said the administration did the right thing if it didn't help the company.

-Just under half say now that the oil industry has too much influence on the Bush administration, down from two-thirds who felt that way in August.

–Four in 10 say they are worried that they have too much of their retirement savings in company stock.

–Seven in 10 said the government should not make up pension losses of people whose company goes bankrupt.

–More than half said Enron had at least some influence on the Bush administration's energy policy and even more said the influence was inappropriate.

© 2002 The Associated Press