Washington, Mar 16: As Barack Obama sought to put controversial statements by his minister behind him, he expanded his fragile lead over Hillary Rodham Clinton in delegates that will determine who receives the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama picked up at least nine delegates on Saturday as Iowa began selecting its representatives for the nominating convention this summer.

Obama claimed 52 per cent of the delegates, compared with 32 per cent for Clinton.

Some delegates stuck with John Edwards, although he has dropped out of the race. Also Saturday, California's Democratic Party finalized the delegate counts from its Feb. 5 primary.

Clinton picked up two more pledged delegates, raising her state total to 204; Obama gained five, raising his figure to 166.

But most of Obama's attention on Saturday remained on countering inflammatory comments made by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of the Chicago church he joined nearly 20 years ago.

"We have to come together," he told a town-hall meeting in the gymnasium of Plainfield High School near Indianapolis, decrying "the forces of division" over race that he said are intruding into the contest.

Comments by Wright, who has railed against the US and accused its leaders of bringing on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by spreading terrorism, have been widely aired on television and the Internet.

"If all I knew were those statements I saw on television, I would be shocked," Obama said on Saturday. Obama suggested that more and more is being made of racial divisions as his contest with Clinton heats up.

"I noticed over the last several weeks that the forces of division have started to raise their ugly heads again. And I'm not here to cast blame or point fingers because everybody, you know, senses that there's been this shift," Obama said.

"It reminds me: We've got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We've got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding. ... This country wants to move beyond these kinds of things." The Illinois senator's comments came a day after he denounced statements made by Wright while pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ. In a sermon on the Sunday after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Wright suggested the United States brought on the attacks.

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said.

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost." In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States.

"God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human," Wright said. Wright, who retired from his post last month, brought Obama to Christianity, officiated at his wedding, baptized his daughters and inspired the title of his book, The Audacity of Hope.

The Illinois senator said Wright had stepped down from his campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee. Obama said that pointing out racial differences only makes it harder to "deliver on the big issues we face in this country," which he said include health care, the slumping economy, terrorism and caring better for veterans.

Questions about Obama's religious beliefs have dogged him throughout his candidacy. He has had to fight against false Internet rumors suggesting he is really a Muslim intent on destroying the United States, and now his pastor's words uttered nearly seven years ago have become an issue.

As the Republican nominee-in-waiting, Arizona Sen. John McCain, was leaving Saturday on a congressional trip that will take him to Iraq, Israel, Britain and France, Obama and Clinton were scrambling for every last delegate in a nomination fight likely to last at least into June.

Clinton campaigned on Saturday in Pennsylvania, where she marched in St. Patrick's Day parades in Pittsburgh and Scranton to rousing cheers from supporters as she looked for a big win in the northeastern industrial state's primary next month.

Obama directed his attention to Indiana, which does not hold its primary until May 6 along with North Carolina. With Iowa's allocations Saturday, Obama added to his slight lead in the all-important overall delegate count.