US voters favour Democrats: poll

Washington: US voters favour opposition Democrats by a 55 to 37 per cent margin in the November 7 midterm elections, according to a Newsweek magazine poll.

With little more than two weeks to election day, the poll released on Saturday confirms the challenge US President George Bush's Republican Party faces in hanging on to the majority of both houses of Congress.

Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to win control of the House and six to gain control of the Senate.

According to the poll, the issues that are most important in the elections were Iraq (31 per cent); economy (18 per cent) and healthcare (16 per cent).