Washington ? Registered voters trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle military matters and the fight against terrorism but are evenly split on which party can best handle the economy, according to an Associated Press poll.

Two months before the November elections, the campaign for control of Congress is very close, the poll indicates, with the Democrats eager to keep the focus on domestic matters, even as the debate on attacking Iraq gains more attention.

Most voters say they want the Capitol and the White House to remain in different hands.

Republicans hold a 2-to-1 lead among poll respondents on handling national security and the war on terrorism. Democrats have an edge among those who say education is the top issue and a big advantage among those who say health care is the most important.

In the competition for control of Congress, 40 percent of registered voters said they would support the Democratic candidate and 40 percent the Republican. Five percent said neither and the rest didn’t know or declined to answer.

By a 2-to-1 margin, people said they preferred that different parties control the White House and Congress, according to the poll conducted for the AP by International Communications Research of Media, Pa. Democrats felt that way by a 68-28 margin, while Republicans were evenly split.

“Competition is great,” said Edward Allen Jr., 77, a Republican retiree who lives in rural central Georgia. “I think it’s best to have different parties in control of Congress and the White House.”

Democrat Jeannette Sasse, a 76-year-old resident of Plymouth, Wis. agreed.

“I feel that if the president and the Congress are all from the same party, we can get sort of a dictatorship,” she said. “We should have a balance.”

Political analysts are skeptical whether the public’s preference for divided government has much effect on votes in individual congressional races.

Democrats have been counting on their traditional edge on domestic issues to give them an advantage this election, but the Republicans’ even standing on the economy and big advantage on military matters could make that less likely.

On the question of which party would handle the economy the best, Democrats got the support of those who make less than $50,000 a year, while Republicans got the nod from those who make more than $75,000 a year. Whites were evenly split on which party would handle the economy best, while blacks overwhelmingly said Democrats.

Asked which issue is most important in the elections, 23 percent said the economy, 19 percent education, 18 percent health care and 17 percent fighting terrorism.

On handling security, Republicans had the advantage among all age, income and education groups.