Barack Obama gained a boost yesterday when the first poll taken since his make-or-break speech last week on race put him back ahead of Hillary Clinton. A nationwide Gallup poll put Obama on 48% to Clinton's 45%. The same poll last week, taken at the height of the row over Obama's minister in Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, gave Clinton her first lead for weeks, 49% to his 42%.

Snippets of Wright's sermons calling on members of the congregation to sing "God Damn America" had been playing on cable television. On Tuesday, Obama gave a speech in Philadelphia rejecting Wright's views but refusing to disown him, and putting Wright in the context of race relations in the US overall.

Both the Obama and Clinton campaign teams have been anxiously awaiting the first poll to see how the speech played with the public. Gallup began polling on Wednesday and continued through to Friday. The poll was of 1,264 Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters.

Obama left the campaign trail on Friday for a holiday. He is due back tomorrow, resuming campaigning in North Carolina, one of 10 states left still to vote on the Democratic nomination. The big test will be the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. If Obama can keep Clinton's expected victory to 55-45, he will remain on course to take the nomination.