Gallup Poll: Obama widening lead

PRINCETON, N.J., July 27 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama has stretched his lead over his expected Republican opponent, John McCain, to 9 points, a poll indicates.

The Gallup Poll Daily tracking survey released Sunday indicated the Illinois senator has a 49 percent to 40 percent lead over his GOP colleague from Arizona.

Obama's 9-point lead comes after he held just a 2-point lead over McCain in the daily tracking poll last week. The poll released Sunday was conducted July 24-26, after Obama's speech at the Victory Tower in Berlin Thursday and extensive coverage of Obama's subsequent meetings with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the New Jersey pollsters said.

The survey was produced from interviews with 2,692 registered voters and has sampling margin error of 2 percentage points.