I'll go right to the wire, insists Clinton

Hillary Clinton warned Barack Obama last night to hold his horses in portraying himself as the winner of the race for the Democratic Party's nomination and said she intends to carry on competing until the last primary votes are counted at the start of June.

Looking forward to a convincing win in Kentucky today, Mrs Clinton tried to brush aside speculation that Mr Obama may declare himself the victor this evening. He is favoured to prevail in Oregon, the other state holding a primary election today.

"You can declare yourself anything, but if you don't have the votes, it doesn't matter," Mrs Clinton insisted during an interview.

If, as expected, Mr Obama passes another important milestone tonight – garnering a simple majority of all pledged delegates – the Clinton campaign will not be impressed. Nor is Mrs Clinton giving him any points for the enormous turn-outs at his rallies, as in Oregon at the weekend.

Noting that Mr Obama has been unwilling to participate in any televised debates since their last meeting in Philadelphia, the former first lady quipped that he would "rather just talk to giant crowds".

Mrs Clinton still hopes to make her case to uncommitted superdelegates. In the meantime she will fight on until the last primaries on 3 June. "I'm going to make my case and I'm going to make it until we have a nominee," she said.