May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Aides to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama denied the campaigns are negotiating an end to the Democratic presidential race or the possibility of Clinton joining her rival on the party's ticket.

CNN reported earlier today that the two campaigns were in talks, a scenario dismissed by both.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs called the report ``completely untrue,'' and Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said it was ``absurd.''

``We are focused on one thing and that is winning the nomination,'' Elleithee said.

The final three primaries in the Democratic presidential race are coming up June 1 in Puerto Rico and June 3 in Montana and South Dakota and Obama's campaign said today he is 56 delegates short of the 2,026 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Clinton is 247 delegates away, according to an Associated Press count.

Clinton, a senator from New York, is vowing to campaign to the end and keep up pressure on the roughly 200 lawmakers and Democratic Party officials known as superdelegates who haven't declared their support. She is arguing that she has a better chance than Obama in the general election.

Battleground States

Her aides cited a Quinnipiac University poll showing her beating presumptive Republican nominee John McCain in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, with Obama winning only Pennsylvania. The three states have been battlegrounds in recent elections.

``Senator Clinton has the winning map against Senator John McCain,'' spokesman Howard Wolfson said, adding that Clinton, a New York senator, could add Arkansas, West Virginia, Florida and Ohio, and perhaps Nevada and Iowa, to the states that John Kerry won in 2004.

Some of Clinton's supporters are promoting her as Obama's vice-presidential running mate. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who backs Clinton, is urging Obama, if he's the nominee, to choose Clinton as his No. 2 because they both appeal to different constituencies, said Phil LaVelle, the California Democrat's spokesman. Feinstein's comments were earlier reported by the Associated Press.

The New York Times reported today that former President Bill Clinton has talked about the possibility of his wife running as vice president on a ticket led by Obama.

Campaigning in South Dakota

Clinton, 60, today plans to talk about rising food and gasoline prices in South Dakota. Spokesman Doug Hattaway said the campaign is also making the case to superdelegates that Clinton has won more states and delegates than Obama since March. Her campaign is fighting to have results counted from Florida and Michigan, two states that were stripped of their delegates as a penalty for holding early primaries.

Obama picked up the support today of Jenny Greenleaf, a Democratic National Committee member from Oregon, and California Representatives Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa. Cardoza initially endorsed Clinton. That brings Obama's total superdelegate count to 311.5, compared with 279.5 for Clinton.

``While I continue to greatly respect and admire Senator Clinton and feel she has made history with her campaign, I believe that Senator Obama will inevitably be our party's nominee for president,'' Cardoza said in a statement released by the Obama campaign.

Obama is spending another day in South Florida where in a speech this afternoon before the Cuban American National Foundation Luncheon in Miami he urged a change in U.S. policy to focus more on Latin America's poor.

Yesterday, speaking at a synagogue in Boca Raton, he stressed his support for Israel's security and asked that he not be judged by the comments of some of his supporters.

``The tradition of the Jewish people is to judge me by what I say and what I've done,'' he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at jsalant@bloomberg.net; Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 23, 2008 16:20 EDT