WASHINGTON (AP):

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain sought yesterday to build on their comeback victories in New Hampshire's crucial primary, bracing for rivals' challenges in gruelling nomination contests ahead that will decide a wide-open U.S. presidential race.

Clinton defied polls and pundits Tuesday night in New Hampshire to narrowly defeat Barack Obama, the 46-year-old black senator of Kenyan descent who last week won Iowa's first-in-the-U.S.-caucus. Clinton's victory reinvigorated her bid to become the U.S.'s first female president.

McCain, after suffering through a faltering campaign, staged a stunning comeback and reprise of his 2000 New Hampshire defeat of George W. Bush by defeating Mitt Romney, dealing the former Massachusetts governor and millionaire businessman his second nominations race loss. The first came in Iowa at the hands of Southern Baptist preacher-turned politician Mike Huckabee who, in New Hampshire, came in third.

The races in Iowa and New Hampshire traditionally set up the presidential front-runner, but did little this year to clarify the race. The candidates are now fanning out across the United States for more state-by-state nominating contests with a variety of plans to tweak staffs and strategies, rest and raise money.

Back home in Chappaqua, New York, Clinton considered questions about how to make her next big stand and whether her organisation needed changes.