US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be struggling to nudge ahead of his Republican rival in polls at home, but people across the world want him in the White House, a BBC poll said yesterday.

All 22 countries covered in the poll would prefer to see Obama elected US president ahead of Republican John McCain. And in 17 of the 22 nations, people expect relations between the US and the rest of the world to improve if Obama wins.

More than 22,000 people were questioned by pollster GlobeScan in countries ranging from India to Australia, and across Africa, Europe and South America.