WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats went on the attack against John McCain Sunday as a November face-off between the hawkish Republican and Barack Obama took shape, but Hillary Clinton was adamant she was still in the race.

With the Democrats coalescing behind Obama after a gruelling nominating contest, Senate majority leader Harry Reid gave a pithy outline of their three main lines of attack against McCain.

"He's wrong on the (Iraq) war. He's wrong on the economy. He's a clone of (President) George Bush," Reid told ABC, while urging Democrats to "relax" and let the Obama-Clinton battle play out until the final primaries on June 3.

Senator Christopher Dodd, who supports Obama, said he was confident Clinton would "make the right choice" for the sake of Democratic unity heading into the general election campaign.

"And she's not about to allow another term of George Bush in the name of John McCain, who's embraced basically the Bush policies on economics, on foreign policy," he said on NBC.

With Obama seeking to build up irresistible momentum against Clinton, the Democrats' rival camps denied they were in talks to end their White House race through a deal on financial arrangements or the vice presidency.

On Friday, the deep-pocketed Obama prompted speculation of a deal to pay off Clinton's 20 million dollars of campaign debt if she bows out of the race and backs him for the nomination.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod said about the debt question, "she hasn't asked, and we haven't offered."

"And the truth is I think that Senator Clinton will have the capacity to retire her debt. I don't believe that Senator Clinton is looking for a deal. I don't think that's what this is about," he said.

Axelrod brushed off a weekend report by conservative commentator Robert Novak that Obama's wife Michelle had vetoed Clinton as his potential pick for vice president, because of her "hostility" to the former first lady.

"That's false. There's been no discussion about vice presidential nominees and this whole scenario," Obama's top lieutenant said.

On NBC, Clinton's national campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe acknowledged that "something big would have to happen" for the New York senator to beat Obama to the nomination.

But he added: "We're not going anywhere. There have been no discussions with any other campaign about helping. Some of these stories I can unequivocally tell you here today ... are not true."

Clinton aides also denied that the candidate last week had played the race card against the African-American Obama when arguing that his support among "hard-working Americans, white Americans" was ebbing.

Heading into Tuesday's West Virginia primary, Obama has now pulled ahead of Clinton in support from Democratic grandees called " superdelegates " who look set to crown the party's champion against McCain.

At least six more superdelegates declared for Obama at the weekend, taking his count on the RealClearPolitics website to 275 to Clinton's 271. He has 1,591 pledged delegates to her 1,426, according to its tally.

A total of 2,025 delegates is needed for victory, meaning the superdelegates will play a pivotal role at the Democrats' August nominating convention unless Clinton bows out first.

With the general election in mind, the Obama campaign on Saturday launched a 50-state voter registration drive whose co-chairs include actress Kerry Washington and singers Dave Matthews and Melissa Etheridge.

Sunday's New York Times reported that both McCain and Obama were gearing up for November by mobilizing in key swing states, targeting independent voters and readying attack ads to broadcast as soon as the Democratic race is over.

Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat-turned-independent and strident McCain backer, articulated the Republican's core message that the inexperienced Illinois senator was weak on national security.

"I'm saying when it comes to dealing with enemies, both in the Middle East and around the world, Senator McCain has more experience, more balance, knows when to be tough, knows when to be soft," Lieberman told CNN.

"And I worry that Senator Obama has not had that experience and therefore, ultimately, will compromise our security in that way and also our alliances."

AFP, May 11, 2008