Obama, Clinton to campaign together next week

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will join Barack Obama on the campaign trail next week for the first time since Obama emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee on June 3.

Obama, an Illinois senator, has been intent on trying to unify the party ahead of the November election after a bitter, 16-month struggle between the candidates to become the Democratic standard-bearer.

Obama and Clinton will appear together on Friday, June 27, but the Obama campaign gave no details about the event.

Earlier this week, Obama included several high-profile supporters of Clinton, such as former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and retired Gen. Wesley Clark in meetings to advise him on national security.

Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, saw her hopes of becoming the first woman president slip away after she entered the race last year with an aura of inevitability. Obama, who faces presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, would be the first black U.S. president.

Clinton did not concede defeat right away but in a speech to her supporters four days after Obama had racked up enough delegates to clinch the nomination, she gave Obama an emphatic endorsement.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Jackie Frank)