Few fireworks at first campaign meeting of Obama and Clinton

US presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have crossed campaign paths for the first time today.

They were paying homage in Alabama to civil rights activists who helped give them the chance to break barriers to the White House.

The two senators yesterday linked arms with activists who 42 years ago were beaten by police during a peaceful voting rights march.

America's own "Bloody Sunday" shocked the nation and helped bring attention to the racist voting practices that kept blacks from the US polls.

"I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom," Mr Obama, who would become the first black president, said from the Brown Chapel AME Church where the march began on March 7, 1965.

"I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants."

Not to be outdone in the hunt for Afro-American votes, Hillary Clinton also spoke in Selma at a church three blocks away and brought a secret weapon.

Three days before the march anniversary, her campaign announced that her husband, the former president, would accompany her and be inducted into Selma's Voting Rights Hall of Fame.

Bill Clinton is one of the most admired men in the black community, sometimes referred to as the first "black" president by influential leaders.

Senator Clinton, who would be the first female US president, said the Voting Rights Act and the Selma march made her presidential campaign possible, as well as those of Obama and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who would be the first Hispanic president.

Clinton and Obama both appeared outside Brown Chapel for a pre-march rally in Selma, but came from opposite sides of the podium and did not interact.

Despite the intense rivalry between their campaigns, the two praised each other.

"It's excellent that we have a candidate like Barack Obama who embodies what all of you fought for here 42 years ago," Mrs Clinton said. Obama said Clinton was "doing an excellent job for this country and we're going to be marching arm-in-arm".

But they did not join arms when the commemorative march got under way. Instead, Mrs Clinton marched with her husband in their first joint appearance on the 2008 trail.

Mr Obama was several people down the line, his arms linked with the Rev. Joseph Lowery, who led the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery march at the request of Martin Luther King Jr.