Romney leading Republican field

Mitt Romney is the clear Republican front-runner in Iowa in the final days before the first voting in the 2012 presidential election, but polls also suggest large numbers of Republicans could change their minds before Tuesday’s caucuses.

Five other candidates are fighting, as they have all year, to emerge as the conservative alternative to Mr Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, in the state-by-state nominating contests to pick a challenger to Democratic President Barack Obama in November’s election.