Americans are sharply divided by race ahead of the first presidential election in which a black candidate will represent a major party, a New York Times/CBS News poll showed on Tuesday.

The poll found that blacks and whites hold vastly different views of Senator Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat who would be the first black president, and are also divided on the state of race relations in the United States.

In the survey, 83 percent of blacks had a favorable opinion of Obama, compared with 31 percent of white voters.