The French, Italians, Spanish and Germans would back Barack Obama in the US presidential poll if they had a vote, while the British would prefer Hillary Clinton, a survey suggests.

An FT/Harris opinion poll of more than 5,000 Europeans found that the two Democrats were by far the most popular candidates, with Mr Obama winning between 35 per cent support in Spain and 45 per cent in Italy. In the UK, Mrs Clinton had 28 per cent support compared with Mr Obama's 23 per cent.