WRAPUP 11-Clinton gives herself a loan, vows to fight on

* Obama campaign sees finish in sight

* Clinton promises to keep fighting

* Clinton loans campaign $6.4 million (Adds Clinton, Feinstein quotes)

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) - Barack Obama took a commanding lead in the Democratic presidential race on Wednesday, but Hillary Clinton vowed to fight on after loaning her campaign $6.4 million.

Obama's big win in North Carolina and Clinton's slim victory in Indiana widened his advantage in their battle for the right to face Republican John McCain in the November presidential election with just six contests remaining.

The results left the cash-strapped Clinton campaign with little chance to halt Obama's march to the nomination. But the New York senator brushed off calls to drop out of the race.

"I'm staying in this race until there is a nominee," Clinton told reporters after a campaign rally in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, which holds a primary on Tuesday.

At a Washington fundraising event to honor women, she said she had been counted out before. "I am staying in this race," she said. "Too many people have fought too hard to see a woman continue in this race."

Clinton dipped into her personal fortune again to try to keep pace with Obama, putting $5 million into her campaign in April and $1.4 million over the past week, aides said.

"It's a sign of my commitment to this campaign," Clinton said of the loans.

She vowed to fight on to contests in West Virginia, and in Oregon and Kentucky on May 20, but Obama aides said he was closing in on the nomination.

"We believe we are going to be the nominee of this party," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters. He said the campaign would begin to look ahead when possible to a general election campaign against McCain.

Obama's 14-point victory in North Carolina was a dramatic rebound from a difficult campaign stretch that began last month with a big loss in Pennsylvania and was prolonged by the controversy over racially charged comments by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

With just 217 delegates at stake in the final six contests, Clinton has no realistic chance to overtake Obama's lead in pledged delegates who will help pick the nominee at the August convention. It is also nearly impossible to catch him in popular votes won in the state-by-state battle for the nomination that began in January.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Clinton supporter, told The Hill newspaper she wanted to find out about Clinton's remaining strategy. "I think the race is reaching the point now where there are negative dividends from it, in terms of strife within the party," she said.