Clinton's lead over Trump slips: poll

Donald Trump chipped away at Hillary Clinton's lead in the presidential race this week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday, as the candidates clashed over how to respond to the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

The poll showed Clinton with a 10.7 point lead among likely voters over Trump. That's down from a lead of 14.3 points for Clinton on Sunday, the day an American-born muslim shooter killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida.

Trump seized on the attack to sharpen his security proposals, saying he would block immigration to the US from any country with a "proven history of terrorism" against America and its allies if elected. The pledge fine-tuned an earlier vow, made after the attacks last year in Paris and California, to ban the entry of all Muslims into the United States. He also called for measures to make it more difficult for suspected terrorists to obtain firearms.

Some 45 percent of Americans said they supported Trump's idea to suspend Muslim immigration, up from 41.9 percent at the start of the month. Meanwhile, about 70 percent of Americans said they wanted to see at least moderate regulations and restrictions on guns, up from 60 percent in similar polls in 2013 and 2014.

Clinton focused her response to the Orlando attack on the need to boost intelligence gathering and defeat Islamic State and what she called "radical jihadist terrorism," while warning against demonizing Muslim-Americans. She also repeated her calls for tougher gun control measures, including a ban on assault weapons.

The poll's five-day average showed that 45.5 percent of likely American voters supported Clinton, while 34.8 percent supported Trump, and another 19.7 percent did not support either candidate. On Sunday, Clinton's support was at 46.6 percent, versus Trump's 32.3 percent.