Barack Obama has overwhelming public support across the world, according to an MSN poll of more than half a million people - while his Republican rival Mitt Romney was only given the thumbs-up by China.

In 34 of the 35 countries where MSN quizzed its online readers, the current US president won well over half of the votes.

The only exception was China, where readers backed Romney by 52% to 48%.

The results of MSN's survey poses something of a dilemma for Romney, who would not want to be seen as being popular in China.

Throughout this year's presidential campaign Romney has tried to talk tough towards the country, accusing it of being a nation of "cheats" and of stealing "intellectual property".

But MSN's poll reinforces an impression of Romney being a friend of China.

His opponents in the Democratic party have sought to further question Romney's judgment by accusing him of encouraging the outsourcing of US jobs to China during his time in charge of the financial services company Bain Capital.

He Wang from MSN China commented on why she thought her readers hadn't backed Obama: "Romney won because our users think he relates to people better. He is less political and more business-like and can relate to the world. Obama is too idealistic, he's already had his chance for four years. So we think the other guy is better."

Here in the UK, MSN readers gave a massive endorsement of Barack Obama, backing him 85% to 15%.

Ireland, who played host to Barack and Michelle Obama during their European tour in 2011, backed the president by 87%.

Voting ends in the 2012 US election campaign on Tuesday 6 November. You'll be able to follow live coverage of the results, starting on Tuesday evening, right here on MSN.

Here are the full results of the poll: