誰是歐洲人心目中的下任美國總統？

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.

據上週三公佈的一項由加拿大某民調機構開展的調查顯示，超過40%的法國人和德國人希望美國民主黨候選人、前第一夫人希拉里•克林頓能贏得2008年美國總統選舉。

安格斯•裏德民意調查機構的該項調查還發現，英國、意大利和加拿大的受訪者也更希望希拉里能當選總統，受訪者需在八位總統提名候選人中進行選擇。

希拉里在德國最受歡迎，支持率達到45.5%。這位想成爲美國首位女總統的紐約州參議員在國內的各項民調中也領先於其他候選人。

希拉里在法國、加拿大、意大利和英國得到的支持率分別爲44%、39%、35%和29%。參與調查的5075名受訪者需在四位民主黨候選人和四位共和黨候選人中進行選擇。

希拉里最大的競爭對手、民主黨候選人巴拉克•奧巴馬參議員在加拿大、德國和法國的支持率位居第二，而相比之下，共和黨候選人、前紐約市市長魯爾道夫•古里亞尼在意大利和英國更受青睞。

但這兩位候選人的支持率遠不及希拉里——奧巴馬在加拿大得到的支持率最高，爲13%；而古里亞尼在他祖父母的祖國意大利最受青睞，支持率爲17%。

該民調機構稱，希拉里身爲美國前總統比爾•克林頓的夫人，她之所以得到如此高的支持率，是因爲她最出名。

在美國國內民調中名列第三的民主黨候選人約翰•愛德華茲、共和黨候選人約翰•麥凱恩和米特•羅姆尼等其他幾位候選人得到的支持率均不到3%。

在英國的受訪民衆中，有一半的人稱他們不知該支持哪位候選人。這一比例在加拿大最低，僅爲四分之一多一點。

目前，各項競選辯論會和競選活動已在美國拉開幃幕，選舉總統候選人的首輪黨內初選將於2008年初啓動。