Romney reaches delegate target

Mitt Romney scores a resounding win in Texas on Tuesday, finally clinching enough delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination.

Although the race has been essentially over for weeks, Romney has just now cleared the benchmark of 1,144 delegates needed to become the Republican presidential candidate.

The multi millionaire businessman fought off a host of conservative rivals and will formally be nominated at the Republicans' convention in Florida in late August.

He now faces a five month sprint to convince voters to choose him over Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 presidential election.

All indications are that the two rivals will face a tight contest in the vote, which will likely be decided by small percentages of voters in battleground states such as Ohio, Florida and Virginia.

Simon Hanna, Reuters