Washington: Faced with an over $20 million in campaign debt, Hillary Clinton discussed the issue with her former rival Barack Obama ahead of their first campaign appearance together to project Democratic party unity.

The two spoke by phone on Sunday night, the first time the likely Democratic nominee and his former rival have exchanged words since their private meeting in Washington weeks ago before Clinton conceded defeat and endorsed Obama.

They discussed retiring Clinton's campaign debt, a conversation Democratic sources cited by ABC called "constructive". They also discussed their forthcoming joint fundraising appearance in Washington on Thursday and the first campaign appearance together appropriately in the small town of Unity, New Hampshire, on Friday. Though the former first lady won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, the two received 107 votes each in Unity.

Clinton conceded the Democratic race to Obama on June 7, just four days after splitting the final two primary contests in South Dakota and Montana. The pair held a secret meeting in Washington at the home of Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Clinton supporter, prior to Clinton's concession but had not spoken since that time.

Besides talking to Obama, Clinton on Monday turned to her supporters for help in settling the well over $20 million in debt, nearly half of which she loaned herself personally earlier in the year when her campaign was virtually broke and faced life-or-death primary contests.

Under campaign finance laws spearheaded by current presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, Clinton must pay herself back before the party's convention in late August, or else she is only allowed to receive $250,000.

In an e-mail to supporters, Clinton says she "has something I want to say," and directs readers to a Web video in which she says "Today, I still need your help."

The video reads, "By helping us pay off our campaign debt, you're not just helping Hillary elect a Democratic president and grow our majority in Congress. You're making it possible for her to work as hard as she can on the issues we care about."

Clinton also continued to praise onetime rival Barack Obama, saying she knows the Illinois senator shares the same goals as she. The Obama campaign is reportedly open to helping Clinton raise money to pay off her lingering campaign debt, though no agreement has been announced yet. Under campaign finance laws, the Obama campaign is not allowed to retire Clinton's debt directly.

Meanwhile, recent public opinion polls show Obama doing much better than McCain on several domestic issues. McCain, on the other hand, does better when it comes to the war on terror.

The latest USA Today-Gallup Poll, for example, shows that Obama is seen as doing a better job than McCain on health care (51 per cent to 26 per cent), the economy (48 per cent to 32 per cent), energy (47 per cent to 28 per cent), and taxes (44 per cent to 35 per cent).

In this same poll, they basically tie on such matters as the war in Iraq (43 per cent to 43 per cent), moral values (40 per cent to 39 per cent) and illegal immigration (34 per cent to 36 per cent).

But it's a totally different situation when it comes to the war on terror. McCain is seen as doing a better job by a 52 per cent to 33 per cent margin. All of which suggests that Obama probably would win the election if the biggest issues involve the economy and other domestic matters, analysts said.

But that could change if the war on terror were to emerge as issue number one in the Nov 4 presidential election. Under that circumstance, voters might flock toward McCain.

Source : IANS