Kerry Sees Off Last Rival in Poll Race

Senator John Kerry drove his last rival, John Edwards, out of the battle to secure the Democratic nomination to challenge George Bush in November's presidential election, with a string of victories, according to early exit polls, in yesterday's Super Tuesday primaries.

Senator Edwards, the Southern charmer who brought unbridled optimism and an up-from-the-bootstraps biography to the race, reportedly decided last night to drop out of the contest after Mr Kerry headed for victory in most of the eastern states, including Ohio and Maryland - where Senator Edwards had hoped to cause an upset.

"He's stepping aside," said a Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second Democratic official said Mr Edwards would drop out this afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina.

With 10 states voting yesterday, Mr Kerry was also poised for crushing victories in his home state, Massachusetts, and New York. Georgia was too close too call. Exit polls were not available for the biggest state voting yesterday, California, but Mr Kerry was also expected to win by a large margin there.

Last night, a question mark still hung over Minnesota, which voted by caucus - an open public meeting which is always more difficult to predict. The Edwards campaign had been hoping for a strong finish in the last days of the campaign there.

The only upset of the day was a quirky, comfortable victory for Howard Dean in his home state, Vermont, where the former governor had kept his name on the ballot, despite withdrawing from the race elsewhere two weeks ago.

Vermont Democrats showed little concern that Mr Dean had not won any of the first 17 contests. Mr Dean has vowed to set up a political pressure group to pursue progressive causes within the Democratic party itself.

Mr Kerry entered Super Tuesday with more than 700 delegates to the party's convention which will choose the nominee committed to him, and was certain to win the lion's share of the 1,151 delegates at stake yesterday. He was well on the way to the 2,162 he needs to clinch the Democratic nomination. Mr Edwards had scarcely 200 delegates before yesterday and fell even further behind.

Mr Edwards was due to address supporters in Atlanta, Georgia, last night. He had been hoping to keep his campaign alive until next Tuesday, when four southern states vote, and he was scheduled to fly to one of those states, Texas, last night.

"Clearly John Edwards is going to have to make an assessment," Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic party's national chairman, said. He added that he was anxious to divert party funds away from the primary to the battle against Mr Bush.

The Bush campaign will tomorrow unleash its $140m (£75m) political advertising fund, flooding more than a dozen states with television commercials defending the administration's record, and questioning Mr Kerry's record.

In the east coast exit polls, Mr Edwards came close only in Georgia, a state which most observers agreed he had to win to have any real chance of continuing. As of lunchtime yesterday, Mr Kerry was 11 points ahead in the polls.

In Ohio, where Mr Edwards had spent much of his time campaigning, early exit polls gave Mr Kerry a 28 point lead.

Super Tuesday was also an important test for the electronic voting system which made its debut in cities across the US. There were reports of glitches, with voters in Georgia and Maryland having to switch back to paper ballots because the touch-screen system had failed to work.