Republican Sen. John McCain is still the favorite of Alabama voters when matched against either Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama.

That's according to a statewide poll of likely voters, conducted for the Press-Register of Mobile.

The survey also found that 45 percent feel the economy is the nation's biggest problem, up from 30 percent in mid-February.

The telephone survey of 413 registered voters was conducted between last Monday and Thursday by the University of South Alabama Polling Group. The margin of error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.

McCain was favored by 52 percent to 30 percent of those surveyed against Clinton while 5 percent picked another candidate and 13 percent didn't know or didn't answer.

Going head-to-head against Obama, McCain was chosen by a 57-33 percent margin. Another 2 percent chose a different candidate and 11 percent were undecided or didn't answer.