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Chicago: Democrat Barack Obama accused rival Hillary Clinton on Saturday of "stirring up" a controversy over the disqualified Florida primary election because it was her last hope of winning their party's presidential nomination.
Obama is leading Clinton in delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination to face Republican John McCain in the November election.
Florida's and Michigan's delegates were stripped of their rights to be seated at the party's August convention because their contests were held too early in the year, in breach of party rules.
Clinton, who won both contests, has long argued the delegates should be seated and awarded based on the popular vote. She made a trip to Florida this week to press her case.
"The Clinton campaign has been stirring this up for fairly transparent reasons," Obama told reporters on the plane from Puerto Rico, to Chicago.
"Let's not ... pretend that we don't know what's going on. I mean this is, from their perspective, their last slender hope to make arguments about how they can win, and I understand that," Obama said.
Neither Clinton nor Obama campaigned in either state before the primary elections, and the Illinois senator removed his name from the Michigan ballot. A party committee will meet next Saturday to seek a resolution to the conflict.
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