Former United States Senator Rick Santorum won the primaries in the southern state of Louisiana on Saturday, giving him a much-needed boost in his struggling campaign to win the Republican presidential nomination.

Cable news channels CNN, Fox News and MSNBC all called Louisiana for Santorum shortly after polls closed Saturday evening, as polls had given him a comfortable lead over frontrunner Mitt Romney. With 99 percent of the ballots counted, Santorum won 49 percent of the vote, Romney 26 percent, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich 16 percent and Texas congressman Ron Paul 6 percent.

Santorum is seen as the favorite of white evangelical Christians, a powerful voting bloc in the Deep South. He previously won the primaries and caucuses in the neighboring states of Mississippi and Alabama.

"In spite of Romney heavily spending and campaigning there, the people of Louisiana saw through the lies and negative campaigning to vote for the authentic conservative," said Santorum in his victory statement. "Our campaign has now won 11 states... proving we can win in the West, South and Midwest."

Fight far from over

Romney, former governor of the northeastern state of Massachusetts, has more than twice as many delegates as Santorum to represent him at the Republican National Convention on August 27 in Tampa, Florida. The winner at the convention will take on President Barack Obama in November's general election.

But with only about 563 out of 1,144 delegates necessary to security the party's nomination, Romney has a long fight ahead of him.

Santorum has about 263 delegates. While the victory in Louisiana breathed fresh life into Santorum's presidential bid, the primaries on Saturday allocated only 20 of the state's 46 total Republican delegates.

acb/cmk (AP, AFP, Reuters)