Hillary wins New Hampshire

US Senator Hillary Clinton claimed a come-from-behind victory in New Hampshire's Democratic primary late Tuesday, edging out her Senate colleague, Barack Obama, after placing third in the Iowa caucuses.

Flanked by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and daughter Chelsea, the New York senator told supporters she "found her own voice" in the five days since her third-place showing in Iowa, and promised them "we are in it for the long run."

"Now let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me," she said.

Solid support from registered Democrats and women were crucial, results from exit polls suggest.

With 72 per cent of precincts reporting, CNN projected Clinton the winner of the first-in-the-nation primary with 39 per cent of the vote to Obama's 36.

Self-styled independents, who made up 43 per cent of all voters polled, said they voted for Obama by a margin of 43 per cent to 31 per cent for Clinton.

But Clinton was ahead of Obama 45 per cent to 34 per cent among those who said they were registered Democrats.

Those voters made up a majority -- 54 per cent -- of all those respondents. Clinton also claimed the majority of women's votes, according to the polling.

That's in contrast to last week's Iowa caucuses, in which Obama surprised observers by stealing the female vote from Clinton. According to the exit polls, Clinton had a sizable lead over Obama among women, 47 per cent to 34 per cent. Analysts say that shift was crucial to the Clinton turnaround.

"If I had a single word, the word would be 'women,' " said CNN political analyst Bill Schneider. "She got the women back."

Meanwhile, US Senator John McCain won the New Hampshire state primary in the race to become the Republican party's presidential candidate.

Despite New Hampshire's comparatively small population, the state carries an importance disproportionate to that size as it is the first state to go to the polls -- rather than caucus -- in the presidential election race.

In exit polls, voters from both parties rated the economy their top issue and the war in Iraq second -- but concerns about illegal immigration rated third among Republicans, while Democrats said health care was just behind Iraq.

In his victory speech Tuesday, McCain made joking reference to a similar speech by Bill Clinton, who coined the term "Comeback Kid" when he did well in New Hampshire as a presidential hopeful.

"I am past the age when I can claim the noun kid ... but tonight we sure showed them what a comeback looks like," he said.

As supporters chanted "Mac is back," McCain said his victory was down to telling the truth even if it was not what voters wanted to hear.

Over the summer many had written off McCain, who had alienated the party's conservative base with his support of a controversial immigration reform bill, and poor fund-raising prompted him to shake up his staff.

Ballots ran low in some polling stations six hours before the last polling stations closed at 8 p.m., indicating a larger-than-expected turnout, representatives of New Hampshire's secretary of state said.

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