Barack Obama severed ties with his former pastor yesterday, declaring that he no longer recognised the Rev Jeremiah Wright as the same man who inspired his religious faith 20 years ago but whose incendiary “rants” have been exploding around the Democrat’s presidential campaign.

After a three-day media blitz by Mr Wright, during which he repeated his claims that the US Government was responsible for terrorism and invented Aids to kill black people, Mr Obama said that when his former pastor “states such ridiculous propositions then there are no excuses”.

Describing how he was “saddened by the spectacle” and appalled by Mr Wright’s comments, which “directly contradict everything I’ve done in my life”, Mr Obama said: “What angered me was his suggestion that my previous denunciations of his remarks were somehow political posturing.”

Speaking after a rally in WinstonSalem, North Carolina, Mr Obama said: “They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced. And that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally today.”

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Mr Obama, who had been under increasing pressure to cut loose the man who married him and baptised his children, said that Mr Wright’s “destructive” behaviour had caused “great damage” to their relationship and was a “show of disrespect to me and also I think an insult to what we have been trying to do in this campaign”.

There are even suggestions that Mr Wright is trying to sabotage Mr Obama’s presidential run. David Axelrod, the Illinois senator’s chief strategist, said: “I think it’s pretty clear that the Rev Wright is not out there trying with the intent of helping Senator Obama.”

Mr Obama and his strategists were particularly dismayed by Mr Wright’s behaviour before the national press in Washington on Monday. It reignited the controversy, intensifying doubts about the Democrat’s electibility when he is scrambling to attract more white, blue-collar voters before next week’s primaries in Indiana and North Carolina.

“I have been a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1992, and have known Reverend Wright for 20 years,” Mr Obama said. “The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago.”

Jim Clyburn, a senior black Congressman, said yesterday that he was “very, very disturbed” by Mr Wright’s performances and claimed that the pastor might have felt slighted when Mr Obama abandoned plans to have him lead crowds in prayer from the podium at the launch of his presidential campaign last year.

“There are some people who feel that when he was disinvited,” Mr Clyburn said, “there was some bad feeling there. I hope that’s not true.”

Until yesterday Mr Obama had been at pains to condemn Mr Wright’s most controversial remarks while refusing to disown a man whom he credits with inspiring his Christian faith. The pastor has expressed disdain for this formulation, saying that the senator is behaving like a politician motivated by soundbites and polls.

Mrs Clinton, who has said that Mr Wright “wouldn’t have been my pastor” appears content to let others fan the flames — possibly because she fears further alienating the African-American vote. Instead, she has merely expressed regret that Republicans are trying to “politicise this matter”.

Mr Wright has already begun to feature in Republican attack advertising against Mr Obama, while John McCain has signalled that he now regards the pastor as fair game in the looming general election.

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, said yesterday that “the burden that Senator Obama carries gets bigger and bigger” with every utterance from Mr Wright.

He added that it appeared that the pastor was going out of his way to weaken the candidate.

Mr Obama also said that the controversy had put a strain on his relationship with the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he has worshipped for 20 years.

Before yesterday’s rally in Winston-Salem, Mr Obama said that the biggest problem his campaign faced was not race but attracting older voters. Sitting directly behind him at the rally yesterday were eight white middle-aged people — mostly women — and two white pensioners.

Mrs Clinton was bolstered yesterday by the endorsement of the North Carolina Governor, Mike Easley, six days before the state’s primary. Although polls show her trailing Mr Obama by double digits in North Carolina, the endorsement will strengthen her further among the white rural working class, a group that has been increasingly reluctant to back her rival in recent contests.

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