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HILLARY Clinton staged a remarkable comeback yesterday to win the key battleground states of Texas and Ohio over Barack Obama, meaning the race for the Democratic presidential nomination could now drag on until August.

Unable to land a knockout blow in Texas, Senator Obama is now forced to fight a resurgent Senator Clinton in a battle that can now only be settled by party insiders, rather than by the popular vote.

"We are going on, we`re going strong and we are going all the way," Senator Clinton told her ecstatic supporters at a rally in Colombus, Ohio.

"They call Ohio a bellwether state, the battleground state. It`s a state that knows how to pick a president and no candidate in recent history, Democrat or Republican, has won the White House without winning the Ohio primary," the former first lady told the crowd.

Senator Clinton won Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island after a month of defeats. Senator Obama picked up Vermont.

The results came as Arizona senator and Vietnam veteran John McCain sealed his own dramatic reversal of fortunes to win the Republican Party`s nomination and to steal a march on the Democratic Party.

"Thank you, Texas, Ohio, Vermont and Rhode Island. I am very grateful for the broad support you have given our campaign," the 71-year-old senator told supporters in Dallas, Texas.

"And I am very pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a sense of great responsibility that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States."

Senator McCain now gets to sell his message as his party`s leader while his rivals fight it out in an increasingly bitter contest that can only help Republicans.

His victory speech in Dallas emphasised his national security credentials while highlighting his differences with the Bush administration over the way it has handled the Iraq war.

"I will defend the decision to destroy Saddam Hussein`s regime as I criticised the failed tactics that were employed for too long to establish the conditions that will allow us to leave that country with our country`s interests secure and our honour intact," Senator McCain said.

"But Americans know that the next president doesn`t get to remake that decision."

The epic battle between senators Clinton and Obama has no parallel in modern political history. Both were trying to claim the mantle of leader yesterday when clearly the result is months away.

There are 12 contests to come, ending in the American territory of Puerto Rico in early June.

Both candidates will make a strong argument to the party that they deserve to be its flagbearer in the race against Senator McCain in November. But the contest is likely to come down to the super delegates - appointed party insiders, as opposed to the delegates awarded by state votes.

Senator Obama, 46, has a handy lead over Senator Clinton in the elected delegate count that was barely dented by Senator Clinton`s wins last night.

"We have nearly the same delegate lead as we did this morning and we are on our way to winning this nomination," he told supporters in San Antonio.

Neither candidate can reach the 2025 elected delegates needed to achieve a simple majority. Instead it will fall to 796 party insiders to break the deadlock.

There is already an almighty backroom battle under way to swing the super delegates.

Exit polls indicated that the undecided voters broke for Senator Clinton in the final days, meaning her latest round of attacks appears to have worked.

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