Hillary Clinton remains defiant as the former first lady and her Democratic White House rival Barack Obama begin their final full week of a history-making selection epic.
In the run-up to next Sunday's Puerto Rico primary, and the climactic contests two days later in Montana and South Dakota, Senator Clinton scorned the pundits who believe her struggle to wrench the nomination from Barack Obama is doomed.
She said in an interview in Sunday’s New York Daily News that she is still running because she believes she can still win on the merits.
Mrs Clinton insisted that she and not Senator Obama could best go toe-to-toe with Republican John McCain.
Nearly six months since the costliest primary race in US history kicked-off in Iowa in early January, Senator Obama leads with 1,970 delegates to Ms Clinton's 1,780, according to RealClearPolitics.com.
The winning line is 2,026, leaving Mr Obama on the cusp of becoming the first African-American selected as a major US party's presidential standard-bearer.
But Senator Clinton insists she will end up with more of the national popular vote, if the outlawed results of primaries in Florida and Michigan are counted, and says is the better candidate to carry blue-collar and female Democrats.
Next Saturday, at a meeting of the Democratic Party's rules committee, the Clinton campaign will press its case for the lion's share of convention delegates she won in Florida and Michigan to be reinstated.
But former US president Jimmy Carter has said the race would be declared over by party superdelegates, who are free to vote for either candidate, after the final primaries on 3 June.
McCain seeking VP
Republican John McCain has already begun his hunt for a running mate, according to reports.
He spent this weekend at his Arizona ranch with three prospective candidates: Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the new Indian-American governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, and former presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.
The McCain campaign said the get-together was purely social.
