Fox poll: Obama 46, Romney 39

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WASHINGTON, May 16 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has opened a 7-point lead over presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a Fox News poll released Wednesday found.

The poll of 913 registered voters, conducted Sunday through Tuesday, found American voters prefer Obama over Romney 46 percent to 39 percent. The two were tied at 46 percent in the previous Fox News poll three weeks ago.

The number of voters describing the economy as poor fell 14 percentage points from one year ago, Fox News said, while the number of voters who viewed the economy positively -- 11 percent -- was the highest in more than three years.

Obama does better among women with 55 percent to 33 percent for Romney. Men preferred Romney over Obama, 46 percent to 37 percent.

The poll found 88 percent of Democrats favor Obama while 84 percent of Republicans prefer Romney.

Romney does better than Obama among independents, 34 percent to 29 percent, with 36 percent saying they were undecided.

The poll has a sampling error of 3 percentage points.