NEW YORK – Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Sunday that Barack Obama’s campaign had injected racial tension into the presidential contest, saying he had distorted for political gain her comments about Martin Luther King’s role in the civil rights movement.

“This is an unfortunate story line the Obama campaign has pushed very successfully,” the former first lady said in a spirited appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” ”I don’t think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it’s not about race.”

Clinton taped the show before appearances in South Carolina, whose Jan. 26 primary will be the first to include a significant representation of black voters. Blacks were 50 percent of primary voters in the state in 2004 and the number is expected to swell this time.

Both New York Sen. Clinton and her husband, the former president, have engaged in damage control this week after black leaders criticized their comments shortly before the New Hampshire primary last Tuesday.

The senator was quoted as saying King’s dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while Bill Clinton said Illinois Sen. Obama was telling a “fairy tale” about his opposition to the Iraq war.

Former President Clinton has since appeared on several black radio programs to say he was referring to Obama’s record on the Iraq war, not on his effort to become the nation’s first black president.

During the televised interview, Hillary Clinton praised King as one of the people she “admired most in the world,” and suggested his record of activism stood in stark contrast to Obama’s.

Obama scoffed at her suggestion of an inconsistent record on the war. Campaigning in Las Vegas, he said he voted for war funding out of an obligation to support the troops, and noted other prominent Democrats, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Barbara Boxer, who voted the same way.

“Once we had our troops in, two years into a war, it was important that we do the best job of it,” Obama said. “They have decided to run a relentlessly negative campaign. I don’t think anyone who is paying attention can deny that.”

Associated Press writers Philip Elliott, Seanna Adcox and Kathleen Hennessy contributed to this report