Clinton demands Obama rejection of priest

Hillary Clinton's camp has demanded a specific rejection from rival Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama of a priest who mocked her in racially-tinged language at his Chicago church.

Senator Obama, hoping to finally clinch the Democratic nomination within days, was facing new questions about his past links to the Trinity United Church of Christ, following the latest fiery sermons from its pulpit.

The Illinois senator yesterday released a statement saying he was disappointed with the comments by Catholic priest Michael Pfleger, but Mrs Clinton's aides said it did not go far enough.

Fr Pfleger's sarcastic sermon was made from the same pulpit as the inflammatory sermons of Barack Obama's former pastor Rev Jeremiah Wright, which pitched the Illinois senator's campaign into turmoil earlier this year.

In a guest appearance at the church last Sunday, Fr Pfleger mocked Senator Clinton for appearing to cry days before the New Hampshire primary in January, saying she was on the verge of tears because 'there is a black man stealing my show.'

'She always thought, ''This is mine. I'm Bill's wife, I'm white and this is mine'',' Fr Pfleger said in the dramatic sermon, which now has 100,000 hits on YouTube.

'And then out of nowhere came him, Barack Obama. And she said: 'Damn, where did you come from? I'm white, I'm entitled, there's a black man stealing my show!'

'She wasn't the only one crying, there was a whole lot of white people crying,' said Fr Pfleger, a white Catholic priest.

Senator Obama, seeking to quell the controversy that could provide ammunition to Republican critics, quickly issued a statement last night.

He said that as he has travelled the country, he has been impressed not by what divides, but by all that unites.

'That is why I am deeply disappointed in Fr Pfleger's divisive, backward-looking rhetoric, which doesn't reflect the country I see or the desire of people across America to come together in common cause.'

It was unclear how deeply the new drama would damage Senator Obama's campaign as he stands on the verge of capturing the nomination, with the last two primary votes on Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota.

Videos of Wright earlier this year claiming AIDS was a racist government plot and suggesting black citizens sing "God Damn America" to protest their treatment by whites threw his campaign into major damage control mode.

Barack Obama initially declined to reject Rev Wright, using the row to make a wider comment about race in America in a speech in March.

However he later disavowed him after a round of media appearances by the pastor reignited the affair.

As the latest pastor flap raged, Senator Obama duelled with potential Republican general election foe John McCain on Iraq.

His campaign accused the Arizona senator of using the military as a political prop, after it included a picture of John McCain shaking hands with Iraq war commander General David Petraeus in a fundraising email.

But Senator McCain's campaign hit back that Barack Obama was guilty of weak leadership on the war.

The Clinton and Obama camps were meanwhile gearing up for Saturday's faceoff at a meeting of the Democratic Party's rules committee, to judge whether delegates from Florida and Michigan should be reinstated after a scheduling row.

While no outcome is likely to seriously dent Senator Obama's delegate lead, Hillary Clinton needs her victories in the two states to be counted to buttress her case that she leads in the national popular vote after 51 valid contests.