We report on the determination of the deconfining temperature in SU(3)
pure gauge theory, using the Symanzik tree level improved action, on
lattices of size 3 x 12(3), 4 x 16(3), 5 x 20(3) , 6 x 24(3). We find
that the asymptotic scaling violation pattern is similar to the one ob
served using the Wilson action. We conclude that the irrelevant operat
ors do not affect, in the range of couplings considered, the lattice b
eta function. An analysis based on an effective coupling formulation s
hows an apparent improvement.