Barack Obama insists race will not be a factor in the election which could make him the first black US president, as he battles to win over more white voters.

'Is race still a factor in our society? Yes. I don't think anybody would deny that," he said. "Is that going to be the determining factor in a general election? No.

"I'm absolutely confident that the American people, what they're looking for is somebody who can solve their problems," he told Fox News in a long-awaited interview.

Mr Obama and bitter rival Hillary Clinton are campaigning hard in Indiana which, along with North Carolina, will host the next contest in what is already the longest primary season in US presidential history on May 6.

The Illinois senator currently leads the battle for the Democratic party's presidential nomination in terms of the popular vote, and both states and delegates won.

But Ms Clinton's recent triumph in Pennsylvania, and Mr Obama's failure to secure a decisive victory has led to questions about his appeal to white working-class voters.

Vote 'split along race lines'

Results from the Pennsylvania primary suggest the electorate was split along race lines. New York senator Ms Clinton won 63 per cent of the white vote, while Mr Obama notched up 90 per cent of the smaller black vote.

In exit polls 18 per cent of Democratic voters said race had influenced their decision, with 73 per cent saying they would back Mr Obama in a general election versus 82 per cent who said they would support Ms Clinton.

But Mr Obama claims that when it comes to the presidential race itself, race will be of no concern to voters.

"I am confident that when you come to a general election, and we are having a debate about the future of this country - how are we going to lower gas prices, how are we going to deal with job losses, how are we going to focus on energy independence - that those are voters who I will be able to appeal to," he said.

"If I lose, it won't be because of race," Obama said. "It will be because... I made mistakes on the campaign trail, I wasn't communicating effectively my plans in terms of helping them in their everyday lives."

Timetable for Iraqi leaders

Faced by worries that bitterness between the two candidates' supporters could kill either's chances of beating Republican nominee-in-waiting John McCain, Democratic party chairman Howard Dean insisted they would unite come November.

"We happen to have an African-American candidate and a woman candidate, and clearly those groups of folks who have historically been disenfranchised in our political process have their favorites," Mr Dean told NBC.

"At the end of the day, we have to bring that together... (and) the most important person to bring those folks together is the person who doesn't win."

In his landmark interview with Fox News, Mr Obama also said that if elected president, he would set a performance timetable for the Iraqi government, and not sit around "while they dither".

Asked how he would handle the US mission in Iraq, the senator told interviewers: "What I will do is say we have a new mission. It's my strategic assessment that we have to provide a timetable to the Iraqi government.

"What I will not do is to continue to let the Iraqi government off the hook and allow them to put our foreign policy on ice, while they dither about making decisions about how they're going to cooperate with each other."




Source: SBS staff and agencies