WASHINGTON - If the whole world could vote Democrat Barack Obama would win by a landslide, according to polls conducted in 17 countries by Reader's Digest magazine.

WASHINGTON - If the whole world could vote Democrat Barack Obama would win by a landslide, according to polls conducted in 17 countries by Reader's Digest magazine.

Respondents voted "overwhelmingly" for Obama in every country polled except the US, where Republican John McCain was preferred by a narrow margin.

But the surveys, with about 1000 participants in each country, were conducted several months ago, from June 2 to July 7, for an article in the November issue of the magazine .

"It's Obama by a landslide - except in the country in which he's actually running for president," said John Fredricks, polling director for the magazine. "Most striking is the margin of his support."

Obama was preferred by more than 90percent in the Netherlands, 85 percent in Germany and by similar margins on all six continents.

Meanwhile, The Economist has created a "Global Electoral College" in which readers in the world's 195 countries can cast votes on its website.

Mirroring the US system, each country is allocated a number of votes in proportion to win 270 of a total 538 votes. So far, Obama had tallied,455 global votes and McCain 16 - from Andorra, Georgia and Macedonia. - Sapa-AFP