Washington: White House hopeful Barack Obama believes he is on the brink of eliminating Hillary Clinton from the Democratic fight as their exhausting primary season heads to a climax next week.

Party leaders including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid yesterday said the race would be wrapped up soon -- and dropped every hint that Obama would emerge as the victor.

But ahead of Sunday's primary in Puerto Rico, and the final contests in Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday, Clinton's campaign was adamant she remained the better bet to take on Republican John McCain.

"Obviously, it's not over until we get to the convention or until Senator Clinton makes the decision that she's now prepared to support a unified ticket," former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle told MSNBC television.

But Daschle, a national co-chair of Obama's campaign, said, "I do believe that sometime over the course of the next week we're going to be in a very good position to claim at least that we've got the majority of the delegates."

After nearly six months of coast-to-coast campaigning, Obama is in striking distance of amassing enough Democratic delegates to earn the right to battle McCain in November's presidential election.

But Clinton's campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe insisted that the New York senator remained a far stronger candidate than Obama to recapture the White House for the Democrats.

"Hillary Clinton is the one who can do it. She's got more popular votes. She's got more votes out of the primaries. More people have come out to support Hillary Clinton," McAuliffe said.
Source : PTI