Barack Obama will take on Hillary Clinton in two televised debates later this month after succumbing to pressure from the former first lady’s campaign.

Aides announced last night that the young Illinois senator had accepted Mrs Clinton’s invitation to a debate set for February 21 in Austin, Texas, ahead of the state’s March 4 nominating contest.

“We are pleased that Senator Obama will have the opportunity to debate in Texas, and that it will air on Univision, ensuring a wide and diverse audience,” Adrian Saenz, Mr Obama’s Texas state director, said in a statement.

The event, co-sponsored by CNN, the Texas Democratic Party and Univision, the Spanish language broadcaster, will be followed by a second head-to-head in Cleveland, Ohio on February 26.

Like Texas, Ohio will also go to the polls on March 4 and Mrs Clinton is pinning her hopes on winning the two contests, which both offer rich crops of delegates.

Defeats in either state could be fatal for her campaign following Mr Obama’s landslide victories in the weekend’s contests and predictions that he will sweep the board in today’s “Potomac Primary”, and in Wisconsin and Hawaii on February 19.

Clinton advisers were quoted in today’s New York Times as saying her presidential bid now hinges on a double victory in Texas and Ohio.

Mr Obama’s acceptance of the debate invite comes after a flood of statements from Mrs Clinton’s camp castigating him for refusing to sign up to a string of one-on-one events.

She threw down the gauntlet to her rival ahead of last week’s Super Tuesday round of primary contests, with her challenge to four debates, a recognition of her difficulties in pegging back Mr Obama’s growing momentum.

Some donors and superdelegates – Democratic Party leaders and elected officials who are not bound to vote as their state did – coming off a morale-boosting conference call with Mrs Clinton yesterday reportedly said that they had not been especially reassured and expressed concern that she might be on a losing streak that could jeopardise her chances in Ohio and Texas.

In a further bid to stall her backslide, Representative Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Barbara Lawton, that state’s lieutenant governor, today called on Mr Obama to join Mrs. Clinton in committing to a debate in Milwaukee, where the latest polls show the Illinois senator gaining strength.

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