ALBANY, New York (AP) - While two-thirds of voters nationally say the United States is ready for its first woman president, a new poll shows Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton running neck-and-neck with Republicans Sen. John McCain and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for the White House.

Many voters believe a woman would handle domestic issues like health, education, social security, energy policy and responding to natural disasters better than a man, doing worse only as commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, according to the Siena Research Institute poll commissioned by Hearst Newspapers.

"Three factors have converged to bring us to this moment in U.S. public opinion," said Douglas Lonnstrom, institute director and statistics professor. "Increasing acceptance of the concept of a woman president, the extended losses of the unpopular Iraq War and an instantly recognizable woman candidate _ the United States Senator from New York and former First Lady of the United States,"

The telephone survey of 1,120 registered voters nationwide was conducted from Feb. 5-9. Its margin of error was 2.9 percentage points.

The poll found that 66 percent of Americans think the country is ready for a woman president, up from 64 percent last year and 62 percent in 2005. A fraction of the 27 percent who say the country is not yet ready say it will never be.

However, 81 percent overall say they would vote for a woman president, up from 79 percent last year. "There is some question whether people who are answering the 81 percent are saying to themselves, 'I'm willing to vote for a woman but my neighbor may not be,'" Lonnstrom said.

Since the New York senator is the only serious female candidate under consideration for a 2008 White House run, Lonnstrom says some of the changes over the past three years may reflect the "Hillary effect,"

In at least six years of institute polling about Clinton, including her 2000 Senate race, Lonnstrom says he believes polls undercount her actual support in the voting booth. "I even see this anecdotally," he said. "The Hillary supporters are afraid to speak up, because the people who are anti-Hillary are very anti-Hillary.

"I'm a believer there is that hidden closet vote for her."

Asked specifically about Clinton, 54 percent of those polled think she will be the Democratic candidate for president, and 45 percent of Democrats say they would vote for her in their primary.

If the election were held today, overall 45 percent would back Clinton compared with 44 percent for McCain, while 45 percent would back Giuliani compared with 44 percent for Clinton.