By Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Roland Burris proclaimed himself the new junior senator from Illinois -- but it appeared only one fellow Democrat in the U.S. Senate chamber publicly agreed with him.

Burris' path into the Senate was blocked on Tuesday by top Democrats who have resisted his appointment by the state's scandal-stained Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The dispute over Burris, who was named to replace President-elect Barack Obama, threw a distracting shadow over celebrations by Democrats, who were starting work in a new Congress with an increased majority and looking forward to having a fellow Democrat in the White House on January 20.

Blagojevich was arrested last month on charges of trying to sell the Obama Senate seat -- charges he has denied -- and Democrats took a dim view of his subsequent naming of Burris to fill the seat.

But Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California broke ranks with Democratic leaders and told reporters on Capitol Hill she believed Blagojevich had the right to make the appointment and that Burris should be seated, her office said.

Burris was to meet on Wednesday with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Richard Durbin of Illinois.

Reid said earlier this week without elaboration that there's always room to negotiate on seating Burris.

As new senators prepared to be sworn in on Tuesday, Burris, who would be the only black member of the 100-seat chamber, stood in the rain across the street from the Capitol.