More Americans have shifted their focus of attention from terrorism to economy seven years after the "9.11" terror attack, a newspaper report said yesterday.

While terrorism was identified by nearly half of Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks as the nation's leading problem, the issue has been gradually slipping ever since, resurging only slightly after each new attack overseas or a fresh terror alert at home before fading again, the San Francisco Chronicle said.

"The longer the period of time since the event and the current time, in the absence of any continuing provoking activity, one sees a decline," Larry Beutler, director of the National Center on Disaster Psychology and Terrorism in Palo Alto, near San Francisco, was quoted as saying. "In other words, people quit worrying."

Yet it's unlikely the current presidential candidates will stop presenting terrorism as a pressing danger, said John Mueller, professor of political science at Ohio State University and author of the book "Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them."

Failure to display a tough stance against terrorism by any politician can be a career-ender if an attack should actually happen during a campaign, Mueller said in remarks published by the paper.

But taking a firm stand on the issue carries little political risk, he added.

Just 2 percent of Americans identified terrorism as their nation's top problem in a Gallup survey in early August, the lowest level since the 2001 attacks.

And in new poll results released Wednesday, just 38 percent of respondents said they were at least somewhat worried that they or their families would become victims of terrorism, a nine-point drop since the question was asked last year and the lowest level since mid-2005.

"The majority of Americans are now not fearful of terrorist attack," said Frank Newport, Gallup's editor in chief. "Americans do not report to us that terrorism is the top issue for them in this election. It is the economy."