Huckabee wins Iowa's Republican caucus

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Former Gov. Mike Huckabee won the Iowa Republican caucus on Thursday, surging past better-known rivals to triumph in the first nominating contest of the 2008 U.S. presidential election, U.S. media reported.

The Iowa victory gave Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and ordained Baptist minister, momentum and national credibility for his shoestring campaign as he headed toward the January 8 primary vote in New Hampshire, where polls showed him running a distant third.