HEALING ROLE: Mr Gore is now championing green issues but Senior Democrats hope he can run for president and end the bitter fight between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

The speculation comes amid a continuing war between Mrs Hillary Clinton and Mr Barack Obama which has left some Democrats convinced that neither can deliver a knockout blow to the other. Meanwhile, opinion polls show Republican nominee John McCain stretching his lead over the two Democrats.

Mr Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his work on green issues, remains an influential figure eight years after he beat Mr George W. Bush in the popular vote but lost the White House after the Florida recount fiasco.

He has yet to publicly endorse either of the two candidates. Some believe his backing could prove decisive in settling the stalemate between the two.

The prospect of a new Gore candidacy was raised last week in Time magazine and discussed on the main cable news networks, CNN, Fox and MSNBC.

Currently, Mrs Clinton has 1,497 delegates to 1,628 for Mr Obama, and with only a few primaries left to go neither seem set to pocket the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination at the party's convention.

The Telegraph reported that if the two candidates are unable to secure party nomination, under one scenario a group of about 100 party elders - the 'super-delegates' - could sit out the first ballot in Denver, preventing either candidate winning outright, and then offer Mr Gore the nomination for the good of the party.

Mr Tim Mahoney, a Democrat congressman from Florida, said last week: 'If it goes into the convention, don't be surprised if someone different is at the top of the ticket.' This suggests the party would accept a Gore-Clinton or a Gore-Obama pairing.

Mr Gore, however, has said several times he was not seeking the presidency.

Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton vowed to stay in the race to the very end.

'I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong,' Mrs Clinton told The Washington Post yesterday.

'I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan,' she added.

The two states held their Democratic primaries in January, but because they were held in violation of national party rules, their results have been invalidated.