HILLARY Clinton emerged from Super Tuesday with a slight lead over Democratic Party nomination rival Barack Obama.CNN reported that the former First Lady will win delegate-rich California, and the pair split the Democratic Party vote across more than 20 states which went to the polls.

HILLARY Clinton emerged from Super Tuesday with a slight lead over Democratic Party nomination rival Barack Obama.

CNN reported that the former First Lady will win delegate-rich California, and the pair split the Democratic Party vote across more than 20 states which went to the polls.

War veteran John McCain declared himself to be the front-runner for the Republican Party nomination winning in key states.

Clinton aides said her victory in Massachusetts as “one of the biggest surprises of the night”.

Obama had won high profile backing in Massachusetts from Senator Ted Kennedy, former Democratic Party presidential nominee John Kerry and state governor Deval Patrick, and was seen as the favourite to win the state.

Clinton also won her home state of New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Obama built on his landslide victory in South Carolina as he won the Southern states of Georgia and Alabama. The Illinois senator also won home state, Kansas, Delaware, North Dakota, Minnesota, Connecticut, Colorado, Idaho and Utah.

Mrs Clinton, who wants to be the first female president, said Americans voted “not just to make history but to remake America”.

In the Republican contest, former Vietnam prisoner of war Mr McCain, whose campaign was dismissed as virtually over last summer, will take the biggest state of California, CNN projected.

He also won a series of key states - including his home state of Arizona, Missouri, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York - where he will take every one of more than 280 delegates. Mr McCain also won in Illinois and Oklahoma.

He also congratulated rivals Mike Huckabee, who he said "surprised the rest of us' with wins in West Virginia, Arkansas and Alabama, and Mitt Romney, who won Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota and Utah.