US President Barack Obama, who is seeking a re-election in the presidential polls in November this year, is leading his Republican rival Mitt Romney by nine points, a latest national opinion poll has said.
"The President would take 49% of the vote compared to Romney's 40% in a head-to-head match-up if the election were held today," the poll, conducted by Fox News said, adding that last month, Obama had a 4% point edge of 45% to 41% over Romney.
The Fox News poll comes a day after the CNN-ORC poll gave Obama a seven point lead over his Republican rival.
Obama's advantage comes largely from increased support among independents, who now pick him over Romney by 11% points. Some 30% of independents are undecided, the news channel said.
The Romney campaign, however, has said it is not worried about the latest poll results.
"It's the middle of summer, it's the doldrums. It's the Olympics. There has not been any national news that would push these numbers from -3 to -9," a Romney campaign adviser was quoted as saying by social networking website Buzzfeed.
