By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

CHARLESTON, S.C., July 23 (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and six other Democratic presidential contenders wrestled with questions of race, war and gender on Monday in a debate starring a parade of questions posed in YouTube videos.

The Democratic presidential debate was the first featuring questions submitted on video over the Internet from around the world, from workers in Darfur refugee camps to a talking snowman worried about global warming.

The format, designed to force candidates to drop their rehearsed answers and sound bites, was only occasionally successful but sparked exchanges on Iraq and an extended debate on race and gender involving Obama and Clinton.

Asked if Muslim leaders in the Middle East would be able to negotiate and work with a woman leader, Clinton said: "There isn't much doubt in anyone's mind that I can be taken seriously."

Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black president, said Americans were ready to go beyond racial divisions while Clinton said she was proud to be running as a woman.

"I couldn't run as anything other than a woman," the New York senator said. "I'm excited that I may be able finally to break that hardest of all glass ceilings."

The debate on the campus of the Citadel military college in Charleston, South Carolina, was the fourth Democratic debate of the 2008 campaign.

South Carolina, one of the first states to vote in the 2008 nominating contest, is scheduled to hold its Democratic primary along with Florida on Jan. 29, 2008, shortly after Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire.

Told by one voter that most Americans expected Democrats to end the war after they took power in Congress in 2006, anti-war Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich said political games were the reason the war was continuing.

"Yes, it is politics. The Democrats have failed the American people," he said.

More than 2,000 video questions were posted on YouTube's Web site for the Democratic debate, and CNN editors chose about 25 of them to submit to the candidates.

The debate was the first of six sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to limit the explosion of debates and forums taking up candidates' time.

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