Obama and Huckabee leading in Iowa poll

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has widened his lead in Iowa over rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards heading into Thursday's caucuses, according to a poll by The Des Moines Register released on Monday.

Obama, an Illinois senator, was the choice of 32 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers, up from 28 percent in the Register's previous poll in late November, the newspaper reported.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, held steady at 25 percent and Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, was also steady at 24 percent, the paper said.

No other Democrat received support from more than 6 percent of likely caucus participants, according to the poll.

In the Republican race, Mike Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, maintained his lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 32 percent to 26 percent, the poll found.

Huckabee's lead was virtually unchanged from the previous Iowa poll taken in late November, despite Romney's hard-charging effort to regain the top spot he held earlier in the year, the newspaper said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain was in third place in the Republican race with 13 percent support in the poll, up 6 points since late November, the newspaper said.

After a full day of campaigning, Obama ended New Year's Eve just before midnight in Ames speaking to about 1,000 cheering people packed into a hall at Iowa State University.

He told the crowd about the latest Des Moines Register poll.

"We might just pull this thing off Iowa, who would have thunk it?" he said to wild cheers from the crowd waving Obama signs.

The Edwards campaign questioned the accuracy of the poll, noting it was conducted during the holiday and over the weekend when it would have been difficult to get a representative sample of respondents.

A Clinton spokesman said the new poll did not accurately reflect trends the Clinton campaign was seeing in other polls.

"Voters should understand this is a very close race and that their participation on caucus night could make all of the difference," spokesman Phil Singer said.

The Register said its final survey before the first of the crucial contests to decide the major party candidates for the November 2008 election reflected fluidity in the race even as the yearlong campaign in the state nears an end.

Roughly a third of likely Democratic caucus-goers and nearly one-half of Republican caucus participants said they could be persuaded to choose someone else before Thursday evening, the paper said.

The telephone poll of 800 likely Democratic caucus-goers and 800 likely Republican caucus participants was taken Thursday to Sunday and the margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)