U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is urging the Democratic Party's nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders who are superdelegates to individually determine whether they should support her or rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., The Washington Post reported Sunday.

"Superdelegates are a part of the process. They are supposed to exercise independent judgment," Clinton said Saturday.

Clinton said the party's superdelegates should not necessarily support the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state-by-state nominating contests, the newspaper reported.

Obama, who has won the previous eight Democratic nominating contests, maintains superdelegates should support the candidate with the most voter support.

Obama opposes Clinton's push to have delegates in Michigan and Florida counted even though the Democratic National Committee stripped the two states of their delegates for moving up their primaries in defiance of party rules.

The Democratic field agreed not to campaign in either state. Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards removed their names from the Michigan ballot.

Clinton, who won in Michigan as well as the uncontested Florida primary, said not counting those delegates would disenfranchise voters.