WASHINGTON, June 26: Democrat Barack Obama has opened up leads of five to 17 points over Republican White House rival John McCain in four battleground states, according to Quinnipiac University surveys on Thursday.

Obama is ahead in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin amid rising support from women, ethnic minorities and younger voters, said the Quinnipiac polls conducted with the Wall Street Journal and Washingtonpost.com.

In Colorado, which voted for President George W. Bush in 2004 and 2000, Obama leads McCain by 49 per cent to 44 per cent for McCain.

In Michigan, whose auto industry is in dire straits and voted for Democratic in the last two elections, Obama has 48 per cent to McCain’s 42.

Obama led 54-37 in Minnesota and 52-39 in Wisconsin. Both states voted for Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004, although his margin over Bush in Wisconsin was razor-thin.

“November can’t get here soon enough for Senator Barack Obama. He has a lead everywhere, and if nothing changes between now and November he will make history,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.“But Senator Obama should not be picking out the drapes for the Oval Office just yet,” he stressed.

“His lead nationally, and double digits in some key states, is not hugely different from where Senator John Kerry stood four years ago at this point in the campaign.” The Quinnipiac pollsters also found reluctance among voters in the four states to see Obama select his defeated Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as his running mate.While most registered Democrats in the four states backed the idea, voters overall were against with independents voters opposing Clinton as vice president by 16 to 29 percentage points.

“There is a clear consensus among voters in all of these states that they don’t want Senator Hillary Clinton as vice president and that they see her as a liability for Obama, not an asset,” Brown said.—AFP