The polls have closed in the key U.S. primary states of Indiana and North Carolina, and U.S. media are reporting that Democratic Senator Barack Obama has won his party's contest in North Carolina.
Obama had been favored to win in that southeastern U.S. state, while opinion surveys indicated his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, had a slight lead in Indiana. At the moment, Indiana is too close to call.
The two states were the latest battlegrounds in the grueling Democratic primary presidential fight between Senators Clinton and Obama. A combined 187 delegates were at stake in the contests and will be allotted according to vote results. The senators campaigned in both states Monday. Obama spoke about the difficult plight of the average working-class citizen, while Clinton discussed suspending the federal tax on gasoline to give consumers a break from record-high fuel prices.