Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President George W. Bush and Democratic Senator John Kerry are statistically tied nationwide in an online Harris Poll, erasing an advantage for Bush in the same election poll of a week ago.

Kerry has a 48 percent to 47 percent advantage in the survey of 2,493 likely voters conducted Oct. 21-25, within the margin of error of 2 percentage points. In a Harris poll published Oct. 20, Bush led by 2 percentage points among respondents who said they were ``absolutely'' going to vote and led by 8 points among those who also voted in the 2000 election.

Kerry's one-point advantage in the latest poll is the same using either definition of likely voters. Bush, 58, and Kerry, 60, are tied in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to polls released yesterday by American Research Group. These three states together have 68 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win, and both campaigns say results in any one may tip the race.

A review of state polls shows Bush ahead in 20 states, including Texas and Utah, with 168 electoral votes. Kerry leads in 13 states, including New York and Maine, with 188 electoral votes. In 17 states that have 182 electoral votes, results of the most recent polls are within the margin of error

``This survey also finds very little difference between the numbers for the popular vote as a whole and in seventeen swing states,'' Rochester, New York-based Harris said in a statement. ``In both cases the election is much too close to call.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@Bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 27, 2004 10:35 EDT