Hillary Clinton will officially concede defeat in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination on Saturday, her campaign announced in a statement Friday.
Barack Obama clinched the nomination on Tuesday, and speculation has abounded over when Clinton would end her campaign and congratulate Obama on his victory.
The statement from the Clinton campaign said the event will take place on Saturday at the National Building Museum.
She will thank the millions of supporters who backed her campaign and will formally put her support behind Obama.
Clinton is expected to urge all Democrats to unite behind Obama in order to present a seamless front against presumptive Republican candidate John McCain who has had a head start of several months to prepare his presidential run.
Clinton and Obama met privately Thursday night in California to discuss how the campaign would move forward, The Associated Press reports.
Clinton had earlier refused to concede to Obama, a move some saw as a tactic to gain the vice-presidential nomination. She said earlier this week she was "open" to the idea of being Obama's running mate.
But Obama's spokesperson Robert Gibbs said "there is no deal in the works."
Obama shifts gears
On Thursday, Obama shifted gears and moved into election mode, naming three members to his vice-presidential search committee.
Caroline Kennedy and two party insiders -- Jim Johnson and Eric Holder -- will sit on the team that will begin vetting candidates for the possible second name on the presidential ticket.
Kennedy, daughter of the late president John F. Kennedy, is a beloved figure in the Democratic Party -- and had helped secure Sen. Ted Kennedy's backing for Obama early in the primary race.
