Hope for Howard?

If this poll is correct the election is turning into a cliffhanger, a major turn around from a week ago.I still think the government will lose the election badly but theres this poll must give Howard hope.

PRIME Minister John Howard is still in the race to win a fifth term, but a new poll predicts Kevin Rudd's challenge will narrowly succeed in Saturday's election.

An exclusive Galaxy poll conducted for the Sunday Herald Sun in the campaign's fifth week showed a tighter race for The Lodge.

Labor would win 18 seats -- two more than it needed -- with a 5.5 per cent swing in 20 of nation's key marginal seats, the poll found.

The surprising poll results emerged as the Opposition Leader revealed he would take advice from Mr Howard were he to become prime minister.

"If I believed in office, if we were elected, that Mr Howard had some expertise in a particular area, I would consider consulting him," he said.

Labor was still short of sufficient support to pick up five key Coalition marginal seats in Victoria -- Deakin, McMillan, Corangamite, La Trobe and McEwen, the poll showed.

"The problem for Kevin Rudd in Victoria is that the Labor Party holds more than half the federal seats," Galaxy pollster David Briggs said.

If Labor won, it would be NSW that delivered victory, the poll found. Labor could gain up to 10 seats in NSW, including Mr Howard's seat of Bennelong and Malcolm Turnbull's of Wentworth.

Support for Mr Rudd was highest in NSW, where the swing to him was 7.5 per cent.