Frontrunner Barack Obama on Sunday won the state of Wyoming to end Hillary's Clinton's brief winning spell that helped her bounce back into the bitterly contested Democratic Presidential race, while playing down suggestions of running as her deputy.
The 46-year-old African-American senator added seven delegates to his tally with 61 per cent of the votes while Clinton got five delegates for her 38 per cent.
"This is a very important win for us," Obama campaign official David Plouffe told reporters, pointing that Clinton, her husband and formerpresidnet Bill and daughter Chelsea had all canvassed in the state.
Wyoming sends 12 delegates to the Democratic convention in August, making it one of the smallest prizes in the race, but the win is expected to help Obama get back the momentum he lost with defeats in Texas and Ohio on March 4.
Obama, who is bidding to be the first African-American President of the United States, will now go into the Tuesday's Mississippi contest (33 delegates) with 1,578 delegates against the former First Lady's 1,468.
Amid suggestions that the two rivals should be sharing the ticket as the hotly-contested Presidential duel, which is expected to stretch till the party convention, could take a toll on party's chances in the November Presidential contest,
Obama said it was "premature" to think on those lines.
"Well, you know, I think it's premature," Obama, who has bagged 25 sates against Clinton's 16, told KTVQ, insisting that he had won more of popular vote than Clinton, who is attempting to be the first woman to be elected the White House.
"You won't see me as a vice-presidential candidate. I am running for President. We have won twice as many states as Senator Clinton, and have a higher popular vote, and I think we can maintain our delegate count. What I am really focused on is right now (because all that stuff is premature) is winning this nomination and changing the country, and I think that's what people here are concerned about," Obama said.
Clinton, 60, has previously hinted she would consider sharing the ticket with Obama as her vice-presidential candidate.
Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams, however, said the result was as per expectations.
"We are thrilled with this near split in delegates and are grateful to the people of Wyoming for their support," she said in a statement.
Neither of the two are expected to reach the 2,025 delegates needed for the nomination without help from 796 "superdelegates" -- party officials who are free to back any candidate.
After Tuesday, the next major battle will be in Pennsylvania on 22 April where 158 delegates are up for grabs.
The Republican party has already chosen John McCain as its candidate.
Campaigning in Mississippi, Clinton called for an end to the US military campaign in Iraq.
"He (Obama) has attacked me continuously for having no hard exit date, and now we learn he doesn't have one, in fact he doesn't have a plan at all," she said.
