Clinton trails in Texas, tied in Ohio

Democrat Hillary Clinton narrowly trails rival Barack Obama in Texas and the two are virtually tied in Ohio ahead of critical contests that could decide the fate of her presidential bid, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll released today.

Mrs Clinton faces heavy pressure to win in both big states on Tuesday and halt the Illinois senator's momentum after his 11 consecutive victories in their battle to become the Democratic nominee in November's presidential election.

Mrs Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, has seen big poll leads disappear in both states over the last two weeks as Mr Obama seized control of the Democratic race with his winning streak.

She now trails Mr Obama in Texas by 4 points, 47 per cent to 43 per cent, up from a 2-point edge for Mr Obama yesterday. Mr Obama's strength in the state's big cities and among men, young voters and blacks has offset her advantage with the state's sizable bloc of Hispanics and older voters.

Mrs Clinton still holds leads in heavily Hispanic south Texas and conservative west Texas, but Mr Obama has pulled virtually even among women voters, usually one of her strongest constituencies.

In Ohio, Mrs Clinton has a statistically insignificant 1-point edge on Mr Obama, 47 per cent to 46 per cent, after the two were dead even yesterday. That is well within the margin of error of 3.7 percentage points in the poll conducted by Zogby International.

"It's way too close in both states to say either one has a significant advantage," pollster John Zogby said.

The poll found Republican front-runner John McCain had huge leads in Ohio and Texas over his last major rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, as he tries to nail down the party's nomination.