Huckabee and Obama ready for New Hampshire

Concord, New Hampshire: Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mike Huckabee headed to New Hampshire on Friday, vowing to defend hard fought early wins in the 2008 US presidential season's first key race against rivals determined to upstage them.

The task for the victors in Iowa's caucuses on Thursday night will not be easy. The New Hampshire primary on Tuesday is traditionally where the Democrat who wins Iowa gets ratified and where the Republican winner gets stung.

Obama, a US senator seeking to become the first black US president, knocked expected front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton to third place in Iowa where wins for candidates often translate into valuable momentum in ultimately securing their party's nomination in the US general election.

"On this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do," Obama told a cheering crowd after he won the backing of 37.58 per cent of the Iowa Democratic delegates. "We are choosing hope over fear. We're choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America."

Huckabee, a Baptist preacher-turned-politician, rode a wave of support from evangelical and born-again Christians to victory in Iowa.