WASHINGTON — Lawyers for the Democratic National Committee say a party rules panel acted within its authority in stripping Florida and Michigan of their delegates to the nominating convention and cannot fully restore the delegations according to the results of the states’ disputed primaries.

The determination, made in a legal analysis released yesterday, comes ahead of a key committee meeting Saturday and deals a blow to Senator Clinton’s efforts to have the delegations seated in her favor.

The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee penalized Florida and Michigan for holding early primaries in violation of party rules, and their elections were largely uncontested. But Mrs. Clinton won both primaries, and despite not campaigning in the states, she is now fighting to have those victories recognized. This effort could be one of her last remaining hopes for wresting the Democratic nomination from Senator Obama, who is less than 50 delegates away from the current magic number of 2,026.

The committee will meet in Washington on Saturday to consider challenges from both states and to hear arguments from the Clinton and Obama campaigns about the Florida and Michigan dispute.

In a 17-page memo distributed to panel members late Tuesday, party lawyers wrote that the committee must leave in place the “automatic sanctions” — equivalent to 50% of a state’s pledged delegates — incurred by states that break party rules by holding early primaries.

That determination would seemingly preclude the desired outcome for Mrs. Clinton, who has steadfastly pushed for the committee to lift all penalties imposed on Florida and Michigan; that result could net her dozens of additional delegates and cut into Mr. Obama’s near-prohibitive lead.

The DNC cautioned, however, that the legal analysis provided to the committee was “intentionally neutral” and did “not make specific recommendations.”

The Clinton campaign has argued for seating the delegations in full both as a matter of principle — to “count every vote” — and politics. Florida and Michigan are key swing states, and the party should not risk alienating their voters, campaign officials say. “That would obviously make it more difficult to win those states in November,” Mrs. Clinton’s chief spokesman, Howard Wolfson, told reporters on a conference call yesterday.

With the Democratic nomination within reach, Mr. Obama has softened his position on Florida and Michigan as he seeks to unify the party. His top advisers said yesterday that they would be open to a resolution in which Mrs. Clinton gained some delegates, and they acknowledged that the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination, now 2,026, could increase as a result. “We’ve been clear for some time that we’re open to a compromise that’s fair,” Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said.

A former DNC chairman, David Wilhelm, told reporters on a conference call that Mr. Obama was “taking the moral high ground.”

At the same time, the Obama campaign is not yet willing to concede a full recognition of the January elections. “We don’t think it’s fair to seat them fully,” Mr. Plouffe said.

While supporters of Mrs. Clinton are planning to rally outside the Rules Committee meeting, the Obama campaign has urged its backers to stay home. “We don’t think it’s a helpful dynamic to create chaos,” Mr. Plouffe said.

After announcing the endorsement of three more superdelegates yesterday, Mr. Obama could be in position to earn enough pledged delegates in next week’s Puerto Rico, Montana, and South Dakota elections to capture the nomination outright, depending on what the Rules Committee decides Saturday. Mr. Plouffe, however, denied reports that the campaign had commitments from enough additional superdelegates to render the dispute over Florida and Michigan moot.

“We are announcing them as they pledge their support to us,” he said. “We do not have a bunch of superdelegates in our back pocket.”