New York, Apr 4: In more good news for Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, the number of Americans who believe that the country is ready for a black president has risen to 76 per cent, up 14 percentage points since December last year.

However, only 63 per cent believe that the country is ready for a woman president in the poll which comes at a crucial time when Obama and Hillary Clinton are locked in an intense fight for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama, who is bidding to be the first African-American to be elected to the Oval Office, is leading against Clinton, who is also attempting to script history by becoming the first woman President of the United States, in the states won, delegates pledged and money raised.

Referring to the CNN/Essence Magazine/Opinion Research Corp survey, CNN polling director Keating Holland said that some rise can be attributed to the success of Obama in Democratic primaries.

"We're not asking this question in a vacuum. In many cases, respondents must have had Obama in mind when giving their answer, even though he is not mentioned anywhere in the questionnaire," Holland said.

The poll is bound to give boost to election campaign of Obama who had raised 40 million dollars twice as much funds as Clinton last month.

In the first three months of this year, Obama has raised around 113 million dollars against Clinton's 70 million dollars.

Obama currently leads in the delegate count 1,634-1,500. Neither Democrat can reach the magical figure of 2,025 needed to win the nomination with the delegates left and the nominee is likely to be chosen by some 800 superdelegates- elected officials and eminent partymen.