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Barack Obama has won the support of four superdelegates

Four Democratic superdelegates have endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama as he moves closer to clinching the party's presidential nomination.

The endorsements take the Illinois senator to within five delegates of rival Hillary Clinton, who has always led among the ranks of the almost 800 Democrats and party officials who will decide the party's nominee.

The movement of the superdelegates to support Mr Obama came after he made a surprise visit to the Capitol on Thursday in what many political pundits saw as a victory lap of Congress staged to position him as the party's inevitable nominee.

Tuesday's primary election contests, where Mr Obama won by 14 points in North Carolina and only narrowly lost to the former first lady in Indiana, have been widely seen as a "game-changer" in the prolonged nomination battle.

A steady flow of superdelegates are now lining up to support the 46-year-old senator, with the latest endorsements including a union president and a congressman who switched allegiances from Mrs Clinton. Mr Obama also picked up the endorsement of the influential American Federation of Government Employees union.

"Our people, I think, recognise the enthusiasm and vitality behind Senator Obama's campaign," AFGE president John Gage said. Mr Gage, a previously uncommitted superdelegate, said he was also personally endorsing Mr Obama.

Donald Payne, a black New Jersey congressman who has been supporting Mrs Clinton, said he would now back Mr Obama. "After careful consideration, I have reached the conclusion that Barack Obama can best bring about the change that our country so desperately wants and need," Mr Payne told The Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey.

Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio also gave Mr Obama his support, saying: "Senator Obama has proven he is able to energise young Americans, independents, and even moderate Republicans to support his candidacy. I believe he represents our best hope of winning in November."

Superdelegate Vernon Watkins, a retired union member from Rancho Cucamonga, California, also said he would support the young Illinois senator as he hailed the end of the nomination battle. "The election is over, everybody knows that," he said. "Obama has won."

But Mrs Clinton, who is counting on a significant victory in West Virginia's primary election on Tuesday, also picked up a superdelegate endorsement of her own. Congressman Chris Carney said Democrats in his north-eastern Pennsylvania district supported Mrs Clinton by a more than 2-1 margin in the state's primary election at the end of last month. "I will respect their decision," he said.