WASHINGTON, November 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Early results announced on Wednesday November, 3, gave incumbent US President George Bush the two battleground states of Florida and Ohio, putting him on the verge of re-election.

ABC TV network said that, with 97 percent of the precincts reporting, Bush had 52 percent of the votes in Florida, which has 27 votes in the Electoral College, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Fox and NBC television networks also projected that Bush won the other main battleground state of Ohio, which has 20 votes in the Electoral College.

Snatching the two states would almost certainly secure Bush four more years in the White House and make his Democrat contender Senator John Kerry's presidential hopes almost unachievable.

Kerry had won the swing state of Pennsylvania, securing him 21 votes in the Electoral College.

Bush told reporters at the White House he was "very upbeat" and predicted victory over Kerry. "I believe I will win ... I feel good about it," he said.

Kerry had no comment on the projections but campaign adviser Joe Lockhart said the Massachussetts senator was "bullish" on his prospects for victory.

According to projections, President Bush will take Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Mississippi, Louisiana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Idaho and Montana.

Kerry is said to win Vermont, Delaware, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and California.

The narrow margins revealed by Tuesday's preliminary returns and exit polls suggested another extremely close race amid heavy voter turnout.

Throughout Tuesday, Americans voted in large numbers, leading observers to predict a record turnout.

Polling was extended beyond the official closing time in many precincts to accommodate long lines of voters waiting outside.

The US House of Representatives will remain firmly in the hands of Bush's Republican party according to ballot-counting, but control of the Senate was too close to call in US congressional elections Tuesday.

Republicans, who enjoy an advantage in both chambers of Congress, will maintain and possibly even tighten their control of the House, experts said after reviewing early balloting returns.

The conservative party appeared to make headway in widening its narrow margin in the Senate as well, snatching the state of South Carolina, where Democrat Inez Tenenbaum was defeated by Republican Jim DeMint.

Tenenbaum and DeMint were vying for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Fritz Hollings.

All told, Democrats faced the difficult task of defending five seats in the Republican-friendly south this election: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Louisiana.

In four Senate races Republican-controlled seats were seen as being at risk -- Alaska, Colorado, Kentucky and Oklahoma -- but the GOP (Grand Old Party) successfully defended the latter two.

In Oklahoma, Republican Tom Coburn defeated Democrat Brad Carson, and in Kentucky, Republican incumbent Jim Bunning eked out a narrow victory over Democrat Daniel Mongiardo.

Meanwhile, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota was barely hanging on to his seat as he tried to fend off a strong challenge from Republican Jim Thune.

If he loses, Daschle would become the first Senate party leader to lose his seat in more than half a century.

Democrats found a bright spot when the party's rising-star Barack Obama became the lone African American senator, beating ultra-conservative talk show host Alan Keyes in a landslide in Illinois.

Television networks projected that Obama, 43, had soundly defeated Keyes in the contest to replace a retiring one-term Republican by nearly 70 percentage points, snagging a seat for the Democrats in the narrowly Republican-controlled Senate.

In the House -- where many seats have been gerrymandered to protect incumbents from both parties, some analysts predicted that Republicans would even increase their advantage after party leaders in Texas reconfigured districts there to virtually guarantee the takeover of a half-dozen House seats currently held by Democrats.

At present, 227 House seats are held by Republicans and 205 by Democrats. Two seats are vacant and one is held by a Democrat-leaning Independent.

The magic number giving either party a one-seat edge in the 435-seat chamber is 218.

The 100-seat Senate has 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one Independent who usually votes with the Democrats.