Washington  - As Democrat Barack Obama prepared to deliver what his campaign called a major speech on Iraq Tuesday, a poll showed that Americans were evenly divided between the Iraq strategies of Obama and Republican rival John McCain.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll released late Monday found that when it came to the presumptive presidential candidates' positions, 47 per cent polled said they trusted McCain more on Iraq while 45 per cent gave the nod to Obama.

Asked if Obama would be an effective commander-in-chief, 48 per cent said yes and 48 per cent said no, the Post reported on its website

As Obama moves to cultivate the moderates in the American electorate before the November 4 election, he has proposed a 16-month timeline for withdrawing from Iraq.

McCain, picking up on the increasing anti-war mood in the country, himself has moved away from his primary campaign pledge to keep troops in Iraq for 100 years if necessary, saying he would remove most troops by 2013.

Earlier Monday, Obama, who would be the nation's first black president if elected, had some tough words about personal responsibility to African Americans at the annual National Association for the Advancement of Colored People meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio.

His remarks emphasized the fine line he has walked cultivating support among non-black voters yet also addressing complaints by the black community that he has not catered enough to the discrimination they have suffered.

Obama made pledges to make improvements on the hot-button issues of education, health care and equal pay, saying he would make health care affordable and vowing to eliminate discrimination "from every corner of our country."

But he also warned that such change was not only the responsibility of Washington and Wall Street but also of "ourselves" - continuing his theme of personal responsibility that has angered black leaders like the Reverend Jesse Jackson when Obama, for example, scolded black fathers for neglecting their children.

"Now I know some say I've been too tough on folks about this responsibility stuff," Obama said, according to a prepared text of his remarks, "but I'm not going to stop talking about it because I believe that in the end, it doesn't matter how much money we invest in our communities or how many 10-point plans we propose or how many government programmes we launch - none of it will make any difference if we don't seize more responsibility in our own lives." (dpa)