Hillary Clinton used a 60th birthday party, in which the British singer Elvis Costello serenaded her with "Happy birthday Mrs President", to raise $1.5 million (£730,000) for her presidential bid, her campaign announced today.

Mrs Clinton, who turned 60 today, turned a personal milestone into a political and financial payday by holding a huge birthday gala in the Beacon Theatre in Manhattan last night, where tickets cost between $100 and $2,300.

She also told an interviewer in New York that she "hoped and expected" to win the presidency, at a time when she has increased her lead in national polls over her nearest Democratic rival, Barack Obama, to more than 25 per cent.

Introduced by her husband, Bill, who reminisced how they met at Yale when she was 23 - "the poor child didn't know any better" - Mrs Clinton's birthday celebration also offered her a chance to reach out to older women. The former First Lady's popularity among women decreases the older they get, especially among the generation that came of age before the era of feminism.

Costello's song was a reprise of Marilyn Monroe's birthday serenade to John F. Kennedy in 1962. Jokes at the party were supplied by the comedian Billy Crystal.

Meanwhile, John McCain, a Republican presidential rival, marked a milestone of his own - the 40th anniversary of the day he was shot down over Vietnam. He was held for six years by the North Vietnamese, during which time he was tortured.

He used the anniversary to remind voters that Mrs Clinton, who this month advocated that $1 million of taxpayers' money be spent to fund a Woodstock museum, was an anti-war campaigner in 1967, while he was being tortured in the infamous Hanoi Hilton.

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