WASHINGTON: After crucial victories over Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas, Hillary Clinton said yesterday that she was the best Democrat to beat presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in the November US presidential election.

The victories for Clinton, a New York senator, snapped Obama's winning streak at 12 and defied widespread predictions of defeats in Ohio and Texas that would force her out of the White House race.

The hard-fought Democratic presidential duel now moves to contests in Wyoming and Mississippi and the next major showdown in Pennsylvania on April 22, with Clinton still trailing Obama in pledged delegates who will choose the nominee at the August party convention.