Obama is currently enjoying considerable popular support amongst voters [EPA]

There is little doubt that he enjoys considerable popular support, has an impressive financial war chest and some heavy weight backing, particularly from Hollywood.

He also enjoys an impressive international profile thanks to his rights work for Darfur.

However, some analysts say that Obama's youth and relative inexperience on issues such as foreign policy - aspects pounced on by his Democratic rivals - could work against him.

Many also question whether he has the political shrewdness to survive the world of US politics. 

Beginnings

The son of a Kenyan father and American mother, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. After his parents divorce his mother remarried and he lived in Indonesia for several years.

He obtained his degree in New York and spent several years working for church groups assisting the poor in Chicago in the midwestern state of Illinois.

Obama, like several other presidential candidates, entered the legal profession, becoming the first African-American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review while obtaining his law degree.

He then returned to Chicago, teaching and working as a civil rights lawyer before entering the Illinois state senate in 1997.

In 2004, Obama was elected to the national senate, only the third African-American to achieve such a post since the Reconstruction era of the late 19th century as his website proudly touts.

"Obama-mania" led to breathless queries from the media over whether he would announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, when he finally did so there was a media frenzy, with the young, photogenic senator feted by many as the new face of the Democrats.

Iran controversy

Some have speculated that Clinton and Obama could run together [AP]

He has been vocal on the human rights situation in Darfur, visiting Darfurian refugees in Chad and calling on the Bush administration to do more to prevent the killings.

"Only the United States, working in concert with key nations, has the leverage and resources to persuade Khartoum to change its ways," he wrote in a Washington Post editorial in 2005.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Obama is seen as more pro-Palestinian than other candidates, saying at a campaign stop in March this year that "nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people" - a comment condemned by several pro-Israel politicians.

Obama has since modified his stance, struggling to wrest the potentially lucrative support of the US Jewish community from his closest rival, Clinton and instead stressing that peace would only happen if there were Palestinian partners who "renounced violence".

He has also condemned the war in Iraq, calling for a swift withdrawal of US troops, and has urged engagement with Iran over its nuclear programme and for talks to be held with North Korea and Syria.

This has led to several combative exchanges with his Democratic rivals, in particular Hillary Clinton, who said during campaigning in Iowa that Obama did not have the experience to hold his own in foreign affairs.

Partnership with Clinton?

Obama later countered that, having lived abroad, he had as much experience as any other candidate.

On the home front, Obama has made healthcare a priority, promising an expansive programme that will provide medical care for all Americans.

There is speculation that if Obama does lose the nomination to Clinton, she may well pick him as a vice-president, hoping no doubt to tap into his appeal to younger voters and to appease her detractors within the Democratic party.

However, Obama and his supporters remain convinced he is more than capable of winning the top job for himself.