Washington, February 4 (RHC-AP)-- The recent rapprochement between the U.S. and Cuba has been overwhelming welcomed by U.S. society, with most Americans thinking the U.S. should lift its 5-decades-old economic blockade against the island nation, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

Nearly half of Americans — 45 percent — say they approve of the two nations re-establishing diplomatic ties, while only 15 percent disapprove, AP reports.

Two-thirds of Democrats are on board with the decision, but Republicans are more closely divided, with about one-third approving and one-third disapproving.

Most respondents to the poll want the United States to go further, with 60 percent saying that the U.S. should remove all economic sanctions on Cuba and only 35 percent saying they should stay in place.

Republicans are again more closely divided on the issue, with half in favor and half opposed, while three-quarters of Democrats favor lifting sanctions.

The AP-GfK Poll of 1,045 adults was conducted on-line from January 29th to February 2nd, using a sample drawn from GfK's probability-based KnowledgePanel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.