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Mitt Romney has won Michigan's Republican primary, throwing an extraordinary topsy-turvey race for his party's presidential nomination wide open once again.

His victory in the state where he grew up - and whose economic fortunes he has promised to restore - means that in the three early contests Republican voters have picked three different candidates to lead them into November's general election.

With 99 per cent of the vote counted, the former Massachusetts governor is won in Michigan with 39 per cent of the vote, against 30 per cent for John McCain who vanquished him in New Hampshire last week. Mike Huckabee, the victor in Iowa two weeks ago, is trailing in third place with 16 per cent.

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The battle will now begin again in South Carolina, which stages a primary election on Saturday, with each candidate representing a different strand of the party's coalition. Mr Romney is backed by business leaders and those worried about the economy, Mr McCain's best suit is on national security while Mr Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, has support from large sections of the evangelical Christian vote.

In Michigan, where Mr Romney was desperate for a win after two disappointing second-placed finishes, he repeatedly emphasised his "personal commitment" to a state where his father, George, was a popular governor in the 1960s. Exit polls showed him taking the lion's share of core Republican voters in an election where Mr McCain's hopes had rested on the independents who propelled him to victory in New Hampshire.

In contrast to his faltering performances in the early contests, Mr Romney has turned himself into an angry agent of change against Washington, which he blamed for "throwing anvils" around the state's former powerhouse of a motor industry.

Polls showed that 55 per cent of voters in the primary rated the economy as the most important issue.

In a speech to cheering supporters, he once again promised to "fight for every job", adding: "Tonight is a victory for optimism over Washington-style pessimism. Tonight proves that you can not tell an American that there is something they just cannot do because Americans can do whatever they set their hearts on."

Mr McCain had spent much of the Michigan campaign saying he could not look voters in the eye and promise to bring the old jobs back to a state which has the highest unemployment rate in America. He also reiterated a commitment to taking action on climate change with measures which Detroit car workers believe will damage their job prospects.

At a party for supporters, he said: "We did what we always try to do: we went to Michigan and told people the truth." Mr McCain suggested that Mr Romney had only won because he was a "native son" in the state.

Relations between the two candidates have been poor for a number of weeks and will not have been improved by Mr Romney beginning his victory speech just seconds after Mr McCain began speaking to his own supporters - leading to TV stations interrupting coverage of the Arizona senator almost as soon as he began.

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