Obama meets with U.S. women's leaders

WASHINGTON, July 30 (UPI) -- U.S. women's leaders say they're moving to build bridges with likely Democratic Party U.S. presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

Obama, D-Ill., met with women's leaders from around the country Tuesday in Washington in an effort to win them over after most had supported his former rival in the Democratic Party presidential primaries, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., the Los Angeles Times reported.

"He talked about his concerns about some of the sexism in the course of the campaign," Ellen Malcolm, president of the political group Emily's List and a key Clinton supporter, told the newspaper. "But essentially the meeting was forward-looking."

Some former Clinton supporters have criticized Obama for not going to Clinton's defense when she was allegedly attacked by television commentators and bloggers for being a woman. At the meeting, Obama said "he knew there had been frustration with stuff directed at Senator Clinton by the media," Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, told the Times.

"It was very important for him to reach out," said added. "Obviously he needed to reach out to women in the same way that he has reached out to Latinos and to labor leaders and to environmentalists, and even to evangelicals."