Forty-five percent (45%) of U.S. voters are very concerned about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons following the resignation of the country’s president, Pervez Musharraf, on Monday, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

An additional 42% characterize themselves as somewhat concerned about Pakistan’s nuclear security, although the resignation of Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, appears to have been largely ignored by most Americans.

One-third of voters (33%) say Musharraf’s resignation is bad for the United States; 24% say it’s good for America, and 43% say Pakistan’s change of leadership will have no impact.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of likely voters for Republican candidate John McCain say Musharraf’s leaving is bad for the United States, but only 26% of potential voters for Democrat Barack Obama agree.

Republicans registered slightly more concern than Democrats about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Fifty-three percent (53%) of GOP voters say they are Very Concerned, as opposed to 43% of Democrats who feel that way. An identical number of Democrats (43%) say they are Somewhat Concerned, a view shared by 38% of Republicans.

This month, voters trust Democrats more than Republicans on nine out of 10 issues, including national security, the issue on which the GOP usually shows the greatest strength.

While concerns have been raised about how aggressively Musharraf has been able to pursue terrorists in the Islamic country, only 15% of voters think it is even somewhat likely that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, will be captured before the U.S. election. Fifty percent (50%) say it is not very likely, and 30% say it’s not likely at all. U.S. authorities have long believed that bin Laden is hiding in the mountainous area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

In a survey last September. nearly twice as many voters (29%) believed it was at least somewhat likely that bin Laden would be captured or killed before the 2008 presidential election.

On Monday, Musharraf, the former head of the Pakistani army, resigned as president under the threat of impeachment by the country’s new coalition government. He has been criticized in his country for using the military to crack down on Islamic extremists.

Only a year ago the Bush administration described Musharraf as an indispensable ally in the war on terror and clearly has concerns about a possible power vacuum there now. But publicly the United States has praised the growth of democracy in Pakistan and pledged its support to the new government, although it is unclear who will take Musharraf’s place.

In a Rasmussen Reports survey last November at a time of heightened political unrest in Pakistan, 55% of U.S. voters had at least a somewhat unfavorable view of Musharraf. Only 17% had at least a somewhat favorable view of Pakistan’s president.

In the new survey, 60% of voters say they have followed news stories about Musharraf’s resignation at least somewhat closely, but only 21% say they have followed them Very Closely. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say they have not followed news of Musharraf's resignation very closely, and 11% say they haven’t followed the stories at all.

Only 14% regard Pakistan as an ally of the United States, and nine percent (9%) say it is an enemy. The overwhelming majority (72%) place the country somewhere in between. In the survey last November, half that many (36%) viewed Pakistan as neither an enemy nor an ally. Twenty-seven percent (27%) said Pakistan was an enemy, while 23% described the country as an ally.

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free)… let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.

See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs available for Premium Members only.