New York voters seem unsure whether Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton should run for the president in 2008, though her 2006 re-election chances look good, according to a statewide poll released Tuesday.

On the other hand, a slim majority of New York voters think former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani should run for the president in 2008, said the poll from the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

While the former first lady's re-election prospects currently appear strong, 51 percent of New York voters said they do not want her to run for the president in 2008 while 44 percent said she should run for the White House. Fifty-nine percent of Democrats said she should run for the president.

The former first lady has been leading national polls when Democrats are asked their favorites for the 2008 presidential nomination.

Conversely, 51 percent of New York voters, including 67 percent of Republicans and even 40 percent of Democrats, said they wanted Giuliani to run for the president. Forty-percent of voters said the former mayor should not run for the president.

Should Giuliani and Clinton face each other in a 2008 race for the president, 51 percent of New York voters said they would back the former mayor while 43 percent said they would support the former first lady.

A nationwide Marist poll conducted in February had found that 46 percent of voters nationally wanted Clinton to run for the president in 2008 and 42 percent wanted Giuliani to run.

In the new statewide poll, 74 percent of New York voters, including 66 percent of his own Republicans, said they did not want Pataki to run for the president.

Fifty-one percent of registered voters polled by Marist said they definitely plan to vote for the former first lady when she seeks re-election next year while 31 percent said they would vote against her.

Source: Xinhua