Democrat Barack Obama has a 4-point national lead over Republican John McCain asthey head into the final week of the US presidential campaign, according to a poll released today.
Mr Obama leads Mr McCain by 49 per cent to 45 per cent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, a slight dip from his 5-point advantage yesterday.
The telephone Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
Mr McCain solidified his support among white and male voters but Mr Obama retained double-digit leads among women and independent voters - two key swing blocs in the November 4th election.
Mr Obama had a strong single day of polling yesterday, pollster John Zogby said, and still holds a significant edge among Hispanics and Catholics, two groups who gave a boost to Republican President George W Bush's re-election win in 2004.
"With seven days to go in this race, McCain is still not where he needs to be with some key groups and he is running out of time," Mr Zogby said.
Mr McCain, a veteran Arizona senator, has sliced Obama's 12-point advantage by more than half in the last five days but he has not been able to break through the 45 per cent support mark.
When the national tracking poll debuted on October 6th, Mr Obama led by 3 points, 48 per cent to 45 per cent. In the ensuing three weeks, McCain's support has not been higher than 45 per cent and Mr Obama's support has not been lower than 48 per cent.