WILMINGTON, N.C. — Hillary Rodham Clinton said the assassination attempt yesterday on the Afghan president shows that the U.S. has failed to give proper attention to Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault that missed President Hamid Karzai but killed three and wounded eight others at a ceremony in Kabul.

Clinton said, "He is a brave man trying under very difficult circumstances to hold that country together, and we have not given him the resources he needs."

Afghanistan needs to get "as much, if not more attention" than Iraq, she added.

Clinton was speaking at an evening rally along Cape Fear in North Carolina, which, along with Indiana, holds its primary May 6. She returned to the southern state, where her opponent Barack Obama is favored, after spending two days campaigning in Indiana and appealing to working-class voters who have helped propel her to victory in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The polls show a much closer race in Indiana between the two Democratic candidates.

Speaking in a broadcast interview yesterday, Obama said race is not the reason he is struggling to attract working-class votes and insisted he can win over uncommitted superdelegates by showing he is "best able to not just defeat John McCain, but also lead the country."

Trailing in delegates and the popular vote, Clinton has been stepping up the pressure on Obama for more debates before the upcoming primaries, which are crucial to her candidacy. She also has been reaching out to uncommitted Democratic superdelegates in hopes of capitalizing on her Pennsylvania primary victory.

Clinton's Pennsylvania victory was buoyed by support from working-class and white voters, but Obama dismissed the notion that race will be a factor in the presidential election.

"Is race still a factor in our society? Yes. I don't think anybody would deny that," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

"Is that going to be the determining factor in a general election? No, because I'm absolutely confident that the American people — what they're looking for is somebody who can solve their problems."