The Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose sermons have stirred a firestorm of controversy, is no longer formally tied to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign, an Obama spokesman said late yesterday.

Wright, Obama's longtime spiritual adviser and pastor of his Chicago church, was off Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee as of last night, said campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, who didn't elaborate further. The move follows calls for Obama to sever connections to Wright after news outlets began airing some of the pastor's past sermons.

Among the more inflammatory remarks from Wright are suggestions the U.S. brought the Sept. 11 attacks on itself and that the government had a role in spreading the AIDS virus in the black community. Obama said he sharply condemns such comments and that he never heard those kinds of sermons from Wright. He also said he doesn't plan to leave the church.

"This is a church I have been a member of for 20 years. This is well-established, typical, historically African American church,'' Obama told CNN last night. "What I have been hearing and had been hearing in church was talk about Jesus and talk about faith and values and serving the poor.''

Wright, who is retiring from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ after 36 years, has prompted a swirl of speculation about his relationship with the Democratic presidential frontrunner. Obama wrote about the influence Wright has had on him in his second book, "The Audacity of Hope.''

Obama, who grew up largely without organized religion, joined Trinity church two decades ago while working as a community organizer in low-income neighborhoods. He and his wife, Michelle, were married in the Chicago South Side church, and his two daughters were baptized there.

Incendiary Comments

Obama said he wasn't aware of Wright's incendiary comments until he began running for president early last year.

"If I had heard any of these statements, I probably would have walked up and I probably would have told Reverend Wright that they were wrong,'' Obama, 46, told CNN.

In one sermon, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Wright said "America's chickens are coming home to roost,'' referring to U.S. foreign policy.

In another sermon, Wright said the government "lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.'' He also preached the kind of racial politics that Obama has said he is working to move the country beyond.

Wright lumped Obama's rival, Hillary Clinton, with what he characterized as a white ruling elite.

Obama "ain't rich and he ain't privileged,'' Wright said. "Hillary fits the mold.''

Wright, who is on sabbatical from Trinity church, didn't respond to requests for an interview.

'Like an Uncle'

Obama stressed that Wright is retiring and depicted the pastor as "someone who is like an uncle or family member who you may strongly object to what they have to say.''

He also defended his relationship with Wright, pointing out that the reverend is a former U.S. marine, a biblical scholar and someone who has had a "reputation as a preeminent preacher in the country.''

The Wright controversy winds up two weeks of sparring between the Obama and Clinton campaigns over remarks made by supporters.

An Obama adviser, Samantha Power, resigned last week after she was quoted in a Scottish newspaper calling Clinton "a monster.''

Two days ago, Geraldine Ferraro, the first female vice- presidential nominee for a major political party, was pressured to quit Clinton's finance committee after saying Obama's success in his quest for the White House stems largely from the fact that he's a black man.