Tightening opinion polls lent a critical edge to a looming Republican debate Wednesday and a Democratic clash Thursday, both in Iowa -- the last head-to-head clash of candidates in the state before its January 3 caucuses.

Long-time Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton faced an apparent surge from top rival Senator Barack Obama while Republican Mike Huckabee, who catapulted from obscurity to top polls in Iowa faced new scrutiny of his past.

Obama basked in a weekend of publicity for his campaign duet with talk show diva Oprah Winfrey, which turned out the biggest crowds so far of the 2008 campaign.

"O-Mentum" blared the New York Post tabloid, with a front page splash of Winfrey, America's top earning celebrity, at one of the Obama events.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said a total of 66,500 people showed up to rallies in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire, drawn by Winfrey, who hopes to convince her faithful millions of viewers to vote for the Illinois senator.

"Dr. (Martin Luther) King dreamed the dream, but we don't have to just dream the dream any more," Oprah told the crowd of predominantly Africa-American fans in South Carolina Sunday.

"We get to vote that dream into reality by supporting a man who knows not just who we are, but who we can be."

Clinton sent former president Bill Clinton, still wildly popular among Democrats, to South Carolina at the weekend and Iowa Monday and campaigned with her mother Dorothy Rodham and daughter Chelsea at the weekend.

New weekend polls showed both the Democratic and Republican races developing into a dogfight in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two crucial states which hold primary elections soon after Iowa.

Clinton led Obama 27 percent to 25 percent in Iowa, 30 percent to 27 percent in New Hampshire, and by 28 to 25 percent in South Carolina, according to MSNBC/Mason Dixon polls.

The Clinton campaign however downplayed media perceptions that Obama was cutting into her leads.

"These races are always roller coasters, with so many different polls and so many different results," said Clinton pollster Mark Penn in a memo, admitting Iowa was a tight contest, which also involves former vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

"But the polls in the other states show meaningful leads as we head into the home stretch," he said, noting Clinton enjoyed wide leads in a clutch of powerful states due to vote on "tsunami Tuesday" February 5.

Polls do not however take into account the impact on Clinton's hopes and the expectations of her rivals of a defeat in Iowa or New Hampshire -- or the surge of momentum victors there can expect.

Clinton launched a new television ad in Iowa, promising "a new beginning" for Americans.

"It takes strength and experience to bring about change," she said in the ad, signalling renewed scrutiny on Obama's perceived inexperience in the final weeks before the caucuses.

Third-placed Edwards, banking on a win in Iowa to keep his campaign alive, meanwhile embarked on an eight-day bus tour through the state, declaring "America is rising" up against unfair trade deals, and poverty.

Huckabee, who now leads Iowa polls, came under a torrent of scrutiny over a 1992 statement that AIDS patients should be quarantined.

Former Arkansas governor Huckabee told Fox News Sunday he would probably "say things a little differently" now than when he was asked his views on AIDS 15 years ago.

Latest Republican polls showed a chaotic picture, with Rudolph Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain hot on long-time leader Mitt Romney's heels in New Hampshire.

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll found Huckabee chasing down Giuliani in the national picture, backed by 22 percent of Republican voters nationwide, compared to 24 percent for the former New York mayor.

Huckabee meanwhile carved out a narrow lead over Giuliani, McCain, and former screen star and senator Fred Thompson in South Carolina, according to a polling average by website RealClearPolitics.com.

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