Hillary Clinton's Presidential bid in the balance

The fate of Hillary Clinton's US presidential bid rested with voters in Ohio and Texas yesterday in her hard-fought Democratic duel with Barack Obama.

Voters went to the polls yesterday in Vermont, Rhode Island, Ohio and Texas.

Mrs Clinton, a New York senator battling to snap Mr Obama's string of 11 consecutive state-by-state victories, needs wins in both Ohio and Texas to rejuvenate her struggling campaign and ensure the race moves on to Pennsylvania on April 22.

Losses in even one of the states could set off a stampede of party support for Mr Obama, raise pressure on Mrs Clinton to drop out and make it even tougher to cut Mr Obama's lead in pledged delegates who will choose the Democratic nominee to contest November's presidential election.

Polls show Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama in tight races in both Ohio and Texas - the biggest prizes in this round of voting.

"I think I know what's happening and I believe that we're going to do well tomorrow," Mrs Clinton, who would be the first female US President, told reporters in Ohio on Monday.

"Then we move on to Pennsylvania and the states still ahead," she said. "So I'm just getting warmed up."

Mrs Clinton gained ground on Mr Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black President, to take a slim lead in Texas and pull even in Ohio, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll released yesterday. She took a 47 per cent to 44 per cent lead on Obama in Texas, reversing his three-point edge on Monday. The lead was within the poll's margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

The race in Ohio was deadlocked at 44 per cent in the polling by Zogby International, a slight gain for Clinton from Obama's two-point edge on Monday.

Yesterday's contests also could put Republican front-runner John McCain, an Arizona senator, close to clinching his party's nomination. Mr McCain is favoured to beat his last major rival, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, in all four states.