Front-runner Donald Trump showed signs of tightening his grip on the Republican US presidential nomination when chief rival Ted Cruz acknowledged his own only hope of wresting control is a contested convention.
Trump delivered a crushing defeat of Cruz in Tuesday's New York Republican nominating contest while Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton broke rival Bernie Sanders' string of state victories with a definitive win of her own.
Rebounding from a defeat in Wisconsin two weeks ago, Trump set himself up for another big night on April 26, when the Northeast US states of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland hold primaries.
"Ted Cruz is mathematically out of winning the race," Trump tweeted on Wednesday. "Now all he can do is be a spoiler, never a nice thing to do. I will beat Hillary!"
Trump, 69, predicted some "amazing weeks" ahead for his campaign.
Cruz, at a news conference on the sidelines of a Republican National Committee meeting in Hollywood, Florida, said neither he nor Trump will amass the 1237 delegates needed to win the nomination without a contested convention in Cleveland starting on July 18.
"What is clear today is that we are headed toward a contested convention. Nobody is able to reach 1237. I'm not going to reach 1237, and Donald Trump is not going to reach 1237," said Cruz, a US senator from Texas.
New York boosted Trump's delegate tally to 845, while Cruz has 559 and Kasich 147, according to the Associated Press. Next Tuesday's contests offer 172 delegates for Republicans.
If Trump, a New York billionaire, and Clinton, a former US secretary of state, go on to secure their respective parties' nominations, a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll shows Clinton with a sizeable lead if the November 8 election were held today.
In the latest poll of likely general election voters, 45 per cent said they would support Clinton while 35 per cent would support Trump if the two were running against each other. The April 15-19 poll surveyed 1334 people and had a credibility interval of 3.1 percentage points.
A former reality TV star, Trump has adopted a more measured tone in recent days and appears to be trying to heal wounds inflicted by a campaign that has alarmed many in the Republican establishment. He sent campaign advisers to the party meeting in Florida that began on Wednesday.
"There's only two issues left for Republicans: Will Trump get 50 per cent of the delegates prior to Cleveland, and if not, how close will he be? New York gives him a nice boost, but it will take weeks before we know the answer," said Ari Fleischer, who was White House spokesman under president George W. Bush.
Cruz, 45, came in third in New York. Ohio Governor John Kasich, 63, a long-shot candidate, sought to use his second-place showing in New York as proof he is emerging as Trump's central challenger.
Trump won at least 89 delegates in New York, while Kasich got at least three, according to the AP. Cruz did not win any, prompting Trump adviser Sarah Huckabee Sanders to urge him on CNN on Wednesday to "get out of the way" once the maths of delegate counts makes it impossible for him to prevail.
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