47 percent of American voters favor President Barack Obama and 43 percent back his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, when asked who could do a better job on foreign policy, according to a Pew Research Center poll published by the Reuters news agency on Thursday.

The number represents a substantial gain for Romney, who trailed Obama by 15 points on foreign policy issues in September, but Obama still holds a narrow lead. The poll, taken between October 4 and 7, was carried out about three weeks after the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which the U.S. ambassador was killed.