Super-Tuesday tension in US; Huckabee takes first state California; results from remaining 23 states expected after 0001 GMT Wednesday; epa photo 401245379, ot (2nd Roundup)

Feb 5, 2008, 22:05 GMT

2ND ROUNDUP: Super-Tuesday tension in US; Huckabee takes first state Eds: Adds West Virginia result (eca218), voters' comments from California; results from remaining 23 states expected after 0001 GMT Wednesday; epa photo 401245379, others available; =

Washington (dpa) - Voting was under way Tuesday in the biggest- ever round of US primaries, a coast-to-coast contest in a record 24 states that could decide which two candidates clash in the November election to replace President George W Bush.

First results came from West Virginia, where third-place Republican contender Mike Huckabee won 18 delegates up for grabs at a small, unusual state party convention thanks to the last-minute spoiler backing from lead contender Senator John McCain.

McCain's backers denied the prize to the senator's chief rival, former governor Mitt Romney, by throwing their weight to Huckabee in a second ballot.

Record numbers of voters in the other 23 states - nearly half of the United States - continued casting ballots on Super Tuesday. Many were wrenched by indecision up to the moment they entered the polling booth.

Chuch Martin, 27, a heavily-tattooed artist waiting to vote in San Jose, California, was still weighing between African-American Barack Obama, 46, and former first lady Hillary Clinton, 60, both US senators, who are running neck-and-neck for the Democratic nomination and the chance to retake the White House for their party.

'This is the first time I've ever bothered to vote, and man, I'm having a hard time,' he said. 'Clinton and Obama are both such good candidates.'

For the centre-right Republicans, Vietnam War veteran McCain, 71, battled Romney, 60, with former Arkansas governor Huckabee, 52, in third place as a possible power broker.

The biggest prizes in play include California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey. Both parties are choosing about half their delegates Tuesday, with results expected after 0001 GMT Wednesday.

But because Democrats award delegates mostly according to a contender's share of the vote in each state, Tuesday could end with Obama and Clinton still locked in battle for the centre-left party's nomination.

National polls showed Obama gaining momentum ahead of Tuesday's vote, with backing from two Democratic heavyweights - Senator Edward Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy, brother and daughter to slain president John F Kennedy - and California's first lady, Maria Shriver, another Kennedy.

Obama was moving into a statistical tie with Clinton, including in some polls in delegate-rich California. California's time zone means it will be among the last states to announce results.

McCain, a US senator from Arizona, has surged to the lead in the Republican field, and has benefited from the endorsements of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

McCain said Tuesday could be a big day for his campaign, but when pressed in a television interview, he refused to get too far ahead of himself and predict a final victory.

'It's well-known, I'm very superstitious,' he said on NBC. 'And so I carry around my penny that I found with the head up.'

Republican Party rules that give the first-place finisher the entire delegation in a handful of winner-take-all states could help him nail down the nomination Tuesday, though his two major rivals could also splinter the vote.

Obama, son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, has emerged as perhaps the most exciting new face in the 2008 race.

He and Clinton have battled for weeks as both camps sharpened the contrast between Obama's lofty message of change - a powerful vote- getter in a nation weary of Bush and the Iraq war - and Clinton's greater political experience she brings to the White House on 'day one.'

It's also a clash between the ageing generation of Vietnam-era baby boomers and younger voters attracted by Obama, who seems unburdened by that time's ideological battles and eager to transcend the US's racial divisions.

Clinton has scorned Obama's talk of change as vague and said she would know what to do in the White House from the first day.

'It's not a choice between change and experience,' she told ABC. 'I have the experience to make the changes we need.'

The Democratic nominee is far from assured of victory in the November 4 presidential election. In the critical battle for independent voters, polls suggest McCain would be a strong match for Clinton or Obama.

Unlike Democrats and many Republicans, McCain backed Bush's troop buildup in Iraq, but the flagging US economy has become a top campaign issue.

'The economy's important,' said Barbara Jirsa, a mother waiting to vote in San Jose, California. 'But I can't forgive Clinton for voting in favour of the war. That's the key. I can't vote for her after that.'