Obama raises record $55 million in February: campaign

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama raised $55 million in February, a record for any presidential campaign in a single month, a campaign official said on Thursday.

The amount is well above the $36 million the Illinois senator raked in during January and is also much higher than the $35 million raised by his rival Hillary Clinton during February, even though that month marked a record for her fundraising.

Obama and Clinton, locked in an intense battle to become the Democratic nominee to run against Republican Sen. John McCain, have stepped up their competition with one another for funds for their campaign coffers.

Both the Clinton and Obama camps have been pointing to the amounts of money their are hauling in as evidence their campaigns have enthusiastic backers. But the growing campaign tallies also underscore the extent to which the candidates are scrambling to gain advantage over one another in the hard-fought race.

While Clinton was not able to keep up with Obama's total in February, she stepped up her fundraising that month after bringing in $14 million in January and making a personal loan to her campaign of $5 million.

Clinton, who has been lagging Obama in the race for delegates, racked up wins on Tuesday in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island that broke a winning streak by Obama and marked a comeback for her.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan and Deborah Charles, editing by David Alexander)