Washington ? Now that hurricanes have left the Gulf Coast in ruins and gasoline has spiked to $3 a gallon, Americans are more likely to name domestic problems as the most important ones facing the United States these days, AP-Ipsos polling found.

Homegrown problems – including worries about fuel costs and political leadership – now rank about even with overseas concerns such as the terror threat and war. Public concerns about Iraq remain high.

“Things at home are in peril, and we’re spread thin throughout the world,” said Nick Tepsic, a surgical technician in Boynton Beach, Fla., who is a political independent.

People were asked in an open-ended question last week to name the nation’s most important problem.

Just more than a third named domestic issues, including energy costs, political leadership and morality, and just more than a third named foreign affairs, especially the war in Iraq and the threat of terrorism. About a fourth said the economy.

Public opinion analysts say the shift of attention toward the homefront is no surprise. Hurricane reconstruction, high gas prices and political scandals in Washington have been dominating the news this fall.