President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor defended one of her most controversial statements, saying she never meant to imply that a Hispanic woman would make a better judge than a white man.

Sotomayor, poised to become the first Hispanic justice on the top US court, came in for sharp questions as the Senate Judiciary Committee sought her views on everything from race to abortion to antitrust law.

Democrats call Obama's decision to nominate Sotomayor historic, and have emphasized her long career as a prosecutor and appeals court judge. But Republicans have focused on charges that she may show racial bias in her decisions.

Republicans have drawn ammunition from a 2001 speech she gave in which she said a "wise Latina" might arrive at a better legal decision than a white man, as well as an appeals court decision she made upholding the right of a city to discard firefighter test results which did not produce enough minority candidates.

Offered the chance to explain the "wise Latina" comments at her confirmation hearing, Sotomayor said she had been misconstrued and that she was merely hoping to inspire young Hispanics and women to get involved with the law.

"I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judgment," she said, adding that she believed every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge "regardless of their background and life experience."

Most observers say Sotomayor's elevation to a lifetime appointment on the nine-member Supreme Court is all but assured. But she faced tough Republican questioning, particularly on the firefighters case where her appeals court decision was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court.

"We were following precedent," she said of her ruling on the case, allowing New Haven, Connecticut to junk a promotion exam because it yielded too few qualified black candidates.

Sotomayor said the Supreme Court's move to overrule her provided the legal framework for "how to look at this question in the future" and defended herself against criticism that she might allow any personal biases to influence legal decisions.

"My record shows that at no point or time have I ever permitted my personal views or sympathies to influence an outcome of a case," she said.