PTI 

WASHINGTON, Mar 9: Democrat presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama has won the Wyoming Caucus defeating his rival the New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Illinois Senator Obama received 58 per cent of the caucus vote polled on Saturday while Clinton got 41 per cent.

Nearly 60,000 registered Democrats participated in the event in some 29 counties all over the state.

Obama's win in Wyoming means that he has so far won 13 Democuses as opposed to a mere three by Clinton.

Wyoming has 18 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this late August and yesterday's event picked 12 of them. The other six will be selected in the State Democratic Party Convention to be held in May.

Prior to Wyoming's event Senator Obama has the lead with the pledged delegates with 1520 and Senator Clinton has 1424 delegates. The New York senator, however, has a small lead in the number of Super Delegates.

Wyoming was not a major contest by any stretch of imagination but it does give the Obama Camp some breather in the light of some heavy blows it has received by way of losses in the primaries of Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island on March 4.

Clinton and Obama's battle for the Democratic presidential nomination took on new energy after Clinton's comeback victories in the delegate-rich Ohio and Texas.

A win by Obama in either Ohio or Texas would have raised serious questions of the candidacy of Senator Clinton and could have even forced her to end her campaign.

Next Tuesday Democrats in Mississippi will be holding their political event and here again the favourite is Senator Obama. The state of Missssippi, which would choose 33 delegates, has nearly 40 per cent African-Americans, a group that has overwhelmingly voted for him in the past primaries.