NEDRA PICKLER INDIANAPOLIS Barack Obama scored a crucial win over Hillary Rodham Clinton early this morning in the North Carolina Democratic primary, regaining his footing after weeks of setbacks.

And the victory moves Mr Obama closer to becoming the first black presidential nominee of a major US political party.

Mrs Clinton won the day's other primary, in Indiana - which has become a must-win state for the former First Lady - according to projections by CBS.

Returns from 67% of Indiana precincts showed Mrs Clinton with 53% of the vote to 47% for Mr Obama.

In North Carolina, Mr Obama was gaining 63% of the vote.

A win for Mrs Clinton in Indiana would not turn the race around for her like a surprise victory in North Carolina would have.

With a defeat in North Carolina, Mrs Clinton lost her last best chance to score an upset on Mr Obama's turf.

Mr Obama's win in North Carolina helps stop a slide for him that began two months ago when Mrs Clinton won primaries in Ohio and Texas. He got victories in the Texas and Wyoming caucuses and the Mississippi primary, but soon found himself the target of unflattering media coverage spurred by video of his former pastor's divisive sermons.

The latest contests were the last big-delegate prizes in their marathon race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr Obama continues to lead in the count of delegates who will choose the party's nominee and Mrs Clinton is running out of opportunities to narrow the race.

Mr Obama, an inexperienced but often-inspiring 46-year-old senator, stunned the political establishment by winning 11 consecutive contests in February. He appeared poised to defeat Mrs Clinton, who was once considered the all-but-inevitable nominee. But, while on the cusp of elimination, she won major primaries in March and April.

Mr Obama's failure to lock up the nomination has led to growing doubts about whether he can attract the white, working-class voters needed for Democrats to win in November. Those doubts have been aggravated by the unending attention given to his controversial pastor.

Yet Mr Obama remains the clear leader among delegates. He began the day with 1745.5 delegates, to 1608 for Mrs Clinton, out of 2025 needed for the nomination.

Indiana and North Carolina had a combined 187 delegates at stake.

The weak US economy has dominated the campaign and was by far the top issue in North Carolina and Indiana, according to interviews with voters as they left polling places. Record-high gas prices are a huge concern across the car-loving country.

Exit polls in Indiana, a midwestern state, charted a racial divide that has become familiar in a long, historic campaign pitting a black man against a white woman.

Mr Obama was gaining more than 90% of the black vote in Indiana, while Mrs Clinton was winning an estimated 61% of the white vote there, running ahead of her rival among white men as well as women. She also had 51% of independents' votes, to 49% for her rival, a statistical tie, and was winning among Democrats, 53-47.

Mr Obama's win in North Carolina mirrored earlier triumphs in southern states with large black populations, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina among them.

He was the long-standing favourite in North Carolina, and won today's primary with the overwhelming support of black voters there despite an intense effort by Mrs Clinton to turn the state around.

In North Carolina, Mrs Clinton won 60% of the white vote, but Obama claimed support from roughly 90% of the blacks who cast ballots.

The candidates sparred in recent days over Mrs Clinton's call for a temporary suspension of the federal gasoline tax.

Mrs Clinton said it would help beleaguered drivers; Mr Obama ridiculed the proposal as a stunt that would cost jobs.

To a large extent, the gasoline tax eclipsed controversy surrounding Mr Obama's former pastor.

After saying several weeks earlier he could not disown the Rev Jeremiah Wright for his fiery sermons, Mr Obama did precisely that when the minister embarked on a media tour.

At a news conference in North Carolina last week, Mr Obama equated the Rev Wright's comments with "giving comfort to those who prey on hate".

Mrs Clinton's arguement to superdelegates who will decide the nomination remains that she will be the stronger general election candidate against the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

So far, she's been losing that argument.

The superdelegates - party officials or elected leaders - are free to vote for any candidate at the party's national nominating convention.