Hillary Clinton today sought to barge Barack Obama out of the spotlight, announcing the backing of an influential black Congresswoman and then flying to Florida to celebrate an anticipated “victory” in the state’s primary.

Momentum in this titanic Democratic presidential battle appears to have tilted towards Mr Obama in the past four days following his overwhelming South Carolina win, as well as the prize endorsement from Senator Edward Kennedy in Washington on Monday.

But Mrs Clinton still has double-digit polling leads over Mr Obama in delegate-rich states which vote on “Super Tuesday” next week, including California, New York and New Jersey.

Tonight she attempted to highlight her big state advantage by arriving in Florida, where she is widely expected to win today's primary.

A dispute over the Sunshine State’s decision to move its primary forward from February has seen Democratic candidates banned from campaigning in Florida - and the national party leadership insists its delegates will not be given votes - or even seats - at the nominating convention.

But Mrs Clinton - looking for some good news before next week’s elections - insists that Florida, a pivotal state in the last two presidential elections, cannot be ignored.

Howard Wolfson, her communications chief, said: “We think a million people coming out to vote in this country matters. They want their voices heard and we think their voices will be heard.” He added: “At the end of the day these delegates will be seated.”

All the Democratic candidates pledged not to campaign in Florida. In a conference call to reporters, John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee who has endorsed Mr Obama, called Mrs Clinton's decision to travel to the Sunshine State to talk up her expected victory an attempt to "spin" what he said was "not a legitimate race".

The strength of Mrs Clinton in California, where fully a fifth of the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination will be elected next week, was today reinforced by the endorsement of Maxine Waters - a fiery African Congresswoman from Los Angeles.

“We need someone with the leadership and experience who can step in on day one to tackle the economic challenges our country is facing,” she said.

Although Mr Obama’s South Carolina victory showed him capturing four fifths of black votes, in California Mrs Clinton has backing from a second senior African American politician - Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums - as well as Antonio Villaraigosa, the Mayor of Los Angeles and a key figure for garnering hispanic support.

Mr Obama, who has launched a $3.5 million advertising campaign in medium-sized swing states including Missouri and Arizona, is also looking at picking up delegates from Republican-leaning Kansas, Idaho, Utah and Alaska.

Today he was staging a rally in El Dorado, Kansas, the hometown of his white grandfather, where he was seeking to demonstrate not only his local roots but also a cross-party and inter-racial appeal.

He picked up the endorsement of Governor Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat who has won two terms in a state which has voted for Republican presidents for the past 40 years.

“I think he brings the hope and optimism that we really need to restore our place in the world, as well as to bring this country together and really tackle the challenges that we have,” she said.

Mr Obama claims he is still the “underdog” as he heads into Super Tuesday and his adviser, David Axelrod, said: “The one great barrier we have is that we’re newer and we need to introduce ourselves and we need to do it in a compact and expeditious way.”

The two candidates were both present for President Bush’s State of the Union address on Monday night where Mr Obama was seated next to his new ally, Mr Kennedy.

When Mrs Clinton leaned over to shake the Mr Kennedy's hand, Mr Obama stared coldly at her and then turned his back on her.

There has been growing animosity between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, with both sides accusing the other of using race as a political weapon.

Much of the controversy has been driven by Bill Clinton and there were suggestions yesterday that the former president had been persuaded - by both his wife’s supporters and senior Democratic party figures to take a less aggressive posture over the coming weeks.

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