Obama, Romney tied as Democrats go into convention: poll

President Barack Obama enters an important campaign week tied with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found on Sunday, leaving the incumbent an opportunity to edge ahead of his opponent at the Democratic National Convention.

With the Democrats set to nominate Obama for a second term this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, the race to the presidential election on November 6 is all knotted up at 45 per cent for Obama and 45 per cent for Romney among likely voters, the survey found.

The findings were from the seventh day of a rolling online poll conducted for Reuters by Ipsos to judge voters' attitudes around the political conventions.

A week ago, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said Obama led Romney 46 per cent to 42 per cent. The Republican's own convention last week in Tampa, Florida, gave him a small boost, vaulting him into an even position with Obama but no further.

Now Obama, who is to accept the nomination on Thursday, is poised to get his own convention bounce. Ipsos pollster Julia Clark said she was confident Obama's numbers would improve during his convention.

"The fact that Obama and Romney are still tied signals to me that we're not going to see any sort of sustained bump for Romney," Clark said. "As we go into next week's convention, Romney will struggle to maintain even footing with the president - we'll likely see a shift back towards Obama."

While each candidate won overwhelming support from voters in his own political party, Romney was leading Obama among all-important independent voters by 33 per cent to 28 per cent, the poll found.

Romney's improvement on key attributes continued on an upward trajectory in the poll. On such issues as he "represents America," "is a good person," and "is eloquent," Romney was essentially tied with Obama. On who is more likable, Romney had improved but still trailed Obama 32 per cent to 48 per cent, the poll found.

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