COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sen. Hillary Clinton charged that Sen. Barack Obama was "looking for a fight" in their Monday night debate as they resumed their war of harsh words yesterday.

A day after their Myrtle Beach, S.C., debate got personal and often ugly, Clinton began a cross-country campaign trip by flying to Washington, D.C., where she told reporters that Obama was "very frustrated."

After losing Nevada's caucus on Saturday, Clinton said, Obama's advisers "have apparently convinced him to adopt a different strategy. He clearly came — he telegraphed it, he talked about it — he clearly came last night looking for a fight. He was determined and launched right in."

The Illinois senator got in his own jabs during a media conference call, asserting that "it's very clear that Senator Clinton and President Clinton have been spending the last month attacking me in ways that are not accurate."

Then Obama went on the attack, spicing an economic speech in Greenville, S.C., with barbs at Clinton. The New York senator, Obama said, didn't think that workers or seniors needed immediate tax relief when she unveiled her economic stimulus package on Jan. 11.

"She thought it could wait until things got worse," he said. "Five days later, the economy didn't really change, but the politics apparently did because she changed her plan to look just like mine."

After her brief media appearance in Washington, Clinton headed to a town hall meeting in Salinas, Calif., then to Arizona, New Mexico and New Jersey, all states that will vote on Feb. 5, when 22 states and American Samoa cast ballots in Democratic contests that might determine the party nominee.

Polls show Clinton ahead in the four states she'll visit. She'll return to South Carolina tomorrow for Saturday's Democratic primary.