Without exception, early polls sponsored by large news organisations in the United States have handed the overall victory in the first of three scheduled presidental race polls to challenger John Kerry.

The polls are all based on small samples and the results vary in percentages, but they strongly suggest that Senator Kerry was more successful in getting his message through than was incumbent president George W Bush.

The victory may not actually mean much when the next presidential preference polls come out, however, as the victory did not appear to move voters to the Kerry camp on the war and leadership issues most analysts believe will determine the race.

According to Gallup, for example, Senator Kerry took the debate by a whopping 16 percentage points, 53 per cent to 37 per cent.

More, 46 per cent of viewers said they felt more favorable toward Mr Kerry as a result of the debate, while just 13 per cent felt less favorable. By comparison, just 21 per cent of viewers felt more favorable toward Mr Bush, and 17 per cent felt less favorable.

But, Gallup said, post-debate viewers continued a pre-debate tendency to favor Mr Bush on who is better suited to handling the war in Iraq and serving as commander in chief. The poll results on those issues were little changed from opinions expressed before the debate. And a strong majority of viewers said it was Mr Bush who better demonstrated he is tough enough for the job.

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The Gallup results were echoed in other polls.

ABC News, for example, found that, in a random sample of 531 registered voters who watched the debate, 45 per cent called Mr Kerry the winner, 36 per cent said it was Mr Bush and 17 per cent called it a tie.

The ABC News poll found that among self-styled independent (non-affiliated) voters, Mr Kerry scored a 20 percentage point victory.

But, ABC said, Mr Bush's support was 50 per cent among viewers before the debate, and 51 per cent after it; Mr Kerry's, 46 per cent before, 47 per cent after.