MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Leftist successor to Chile's President Lagos takes lead in polls.

Support for Chilean leftist presidential candidate Michelle Bachelet has surged, according to a respected poll, increasing the likelihood she will become the country's first woman leader in December elections.

The Centre for Public Studies survey published yesterday showed 47 percent of Chileans wanted Bachelet, the candidate of the ruling centre-left coalition, to be the next president, up from 36 percent six months earlier.

Bachelet's rivals were far behind. Opposition rightist candidate Joaquin Lavin fell to 21 percent from 27 percent in December, while a new centre-right candidate, Sebastian Pinera, won 14 percent support.

Many Chileans are drawn to former Cabinet minister Bachelet's charisma and her life story as a political exile during the 1973-1990 regime of ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet. "Bachelet has consolidated her position as the favourite candidate.

Of course we still have some months to go," said Patricio Navia, a political scientist from the Diego Portales University in Santiago.

Navia said Bachelet could even win the presidency in a first round, getting more than 50 percent of the vote in December, because when undecided voters make up their minds, more of them support the leading candidate.

Bachelet, a medical doctor by profession, is the political heir of President Ricardo Lagos ? they are both socialists.

Bachelet is expected to continue the liberal social policies and conservative fiscal rule of Lagos.

The poll showed Lagos' approval rating rose to 61 percent from 60 percent six months ago, helped by optimism over the strong economy