More than four in 10 French and Germans would like to see Democratic candidate and former first lady Hillary Clinton elected US president in 2008, a survey by a Canadian pollster showed on Wednesday.

More than four in 10 French and Germans would like to see Democratic candidate and former first lady Hillary Clinton elected US president in 2008, a survey by a Canadian pollster showed on Wednesday.

The Angus Reid institute also found Clinton to be the preferred candidate of British, Italian and Canadian respondents to its poll, which asked them to choose between eight of the US politicians running for the nomination.

The New York senator, who also leads the domestic polls and aims to become the first female US president ever -- was most popular in Germany, with 45.5 percent support.

Her support stood at 44 percent in France, 39 percent in Canada, 35 percent in Italy and 29 percent in Britain. The 5,075 respondents were offered a choice of four Democratic and four opposition Republican candidates.

Clinton's nearest challenger for the Democrat nomination, Senator Barack Obama, was second most popular among Canadians, Germans and the French, while Italians and Britons preferred Republican Rudolf Giuliani, the ex-mayor of New York.

But these two candidates had much smaller backing than Clinton -- Obama had highest support in Canada with 13 percent, while Giuliani had his top score of 17 percent in Italy, the home country of his grandparents.

The polling institute said Clinton, wife of former president Bill Clinton, had such a high rating because she is the best-known candidate.

Other candidates, such as Democrat John Edwards, third in domestic US polls, and Republican John McCain and Mitt Romney, had less than three percent backing from those surveyed.

Half of respondents in Britain did not know which candidate they would back. This figure was lowest in Canada at just over a quarter.

Debates and campaigns are already underway in the United States, with the first party primary votes to select nominees for the presidential race due to start in early 2008.

据上周三公布的一项由加拿大某民调机构开展的调查显示，超过40%的法国人和德国人希望美国民主党候选人、前第一夫人希拉里•克林顿能赢得2008年美国总统选举。

安格斯•里德民意调查机构的该项调查还发现，英国、意大利和加拿大的受访者也更希望希拉里能当选总统，受访者需在八位总统提名候选人中进行选择。

希拉里在德国最受欢迎，支持率达到45.5%。这位想成为美国首位女总统的纽约州参议员在国内的各项民调中也领先于其他候选人。

希拉里在法国、加拿大、意大利和英国得到的支持率分别为44%、39%、35%和29%。参与调查的5075名受访者需在四位民主党候选人和四位共和党候选人中进行选择。

希拉里最大的竞争对手、民主党候选人巴拉克•奥巴马参议员在加拿大、德国和法国的支持率位居第二，而相比之下，共和党候选人、前纽约市市长鲁尔道夫•古里亚尼在意大利和英国更受青睐。

但这两位候选人的支持率远不及希拉里——奥巴马在加拿大得到的支持率最高，为13%；而古里亚尼在他祖父母的祖国意大利最受青睐，支持率为17%。

该民调机构称，希拉里身为美国前总统比尔•克林顿的夫人，她之所以得到如此高的支持率，是因为她最出名。

在美国国内民调中名列第三的民主党候选人约翰•爱德华兹、共和党候选人约翰•麦凯恩和米特•罗姆尼等其他几位候选人得到的支持率均不到3%。

在英国的受访民众中，有一半的人称他们不知该支持哪位候选人。这一比例在加拿大最低，仅为四分之一多一点。

目前，各项竞选辩论会和竞选活动已在美国拉开帏幕，选举总统候选人的首轮党内初选将于2008年初启动。

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