SAN ANTONIO, Texas - White House hopeful Hillary Clinton has long complained that the news media goes easy on her rival Barack Obama, while reserving rough treatment for her.

But there was little sign of a cozy relationship with reporters on Monday, when the Illinois senator fielded questions in San Antonio on the eve of crucial primaries in Texas and Ohio.

Obama, who is leading Clinton in the race to become the Democratic nominee for president, was grilled about charges made by the former first lady and New York senator that he has been inconsistent on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The exchanges with reporters were sometimes sharp as he was also queried about his ties to Antoin “Tony” Rezko, a Chicago businessman who is facing federal corruption charges.

In Ohio, Clinton had challenged Obama’s credibility on the trade issue. Many Ohio voters are upset over the NAFTA trade agreement, contending that it has cost jobs for the state.

A Canadian television station last week reported that an Obama economic adviser told Canadian officials the candidate was not seriously considering disrupting NAFTA, despite his strong criticism of the trade accord on the campaign trail.

Obama was pressed on why his camp had initially characterized as untrue the reports of a meeting between his economic adviser Austan Goolsbee and Canadian officials.

“When I gave you that information, that was the information I had at the time,” Obama said, while adding that Goolsbee had merely repeated to Canadian officials the candidate’s message that he thought changes were needed to NAFTA.

The Rezko case has been an embarrassment for Obama because the developer was a friend and fundraiser for him.

When a reporter suggested he had not been transparent about the issue, Obama replied, “I don’t think it is fair to suggest somehow that we have been trying to hide the bone on this.”

When he finally ended the news conference, reporters complained they still had questions.

“C’mon guys. I just answered like eight questions,” Obama said.

Clinton has highlighted a Saturday Night Live skit making fun what she deems to be more favorable treatment of Obama by the press.

Although Obama rarely comments about the media on the stump, he did on Sunday in Ohio, remarking that “the press has sort of bought into” the notion — pushed by the Clinton campaign — that his speeches have plenty of nice rhetoric but are skimpy on policy details.

But Obama’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Obama does not spend a lot of time considering the way he is covered in the press and dismissed Clinton’s complaints of unfair media coverage as “spin and nothing more.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young: Barack Obama answers questions on March 3 at a town hall meeting in San Antonio, Texas.