Obama maintains slight lead over Romney: poll

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama enjoyed a lead of 48 percent to 43 percent over his Republican challenger Mitt Romney during the period of June 25-July 1, showed a Gallup poll released Monday.

The five-point gap represents the largest lead for Obama among registered US voters since April, when he had a seven-point edge over Romney, the pollster said.

The current stretch of six days in which Obama led Romney in each day's average is also the longest such streak for the president since April, Gallup added.

The poll included four days of interviewing after the June 28 Supreme Court decision upholding Obama's Affordable Care Act, which helped strengthen the position of the president.

The survey, based on interviews with 3,147 registered voters, has an error margin of about 2 percent.

Romney has not been ahead of Obama by more than two points since mid-May, and his largest lead of five points occurred in April.

The next major event that could affect the voters' opinion about the two candidates is the July 6 announcement of June's unemployment figures.

The Gallup Daily tracking of US unemployment suggests that the report is expected to show a decline in the number of those applying for unemployment benefits in June, which would generally be a plus for Obama.