World Leaders respond to Obama's Victory

"Your brilliant victory rewards a tireless commitment to serve the American people. It also crowns an exceptional campaign whose inspiration and exaltation have proved to the entire world the vitality of American democracy,"

"By choosing you, the American people have chosen change, openness and optimism,"

"energising politics ... his progressive values and his vision for the future"

"In a new historical era, I look forward to... taking our bilateral relationship of constructive cooperation to a new level."

"Twenty-five years ago Martin Luther King had a dream of an America where men and women would be judged not on the colour of their skin but on the content of their character," Rudd told reporters. "Today what America has done is turn that dream into a reality."

"President Abbas congratulates US president-elect Barack Obama in his name and in the name of the Palestinian people and hopes he will speed up efforts to achieve peace, particularly since a resolution of the Palestinian problem and the Israeli-Arab conflict is key to world peace,"

In his commentary, Castro, 82, said Obama "is without a doubt more intelligent, cultured and composed than his Republican adversary" McCain, whom he called "old, bellicose, uneducated, not very intelligent and in poor health."

Celebrations erupted in capitals around the world. A national holiday was declared in Kenya -- where Obama's father was born -- to welcome the first black US president.

"We the Kenyan people are immensely proud of your Kenyan roots," President Mwai Kibaki said.

The BBC's Juliet Njeri says Mr Obama's step-grandmother was seen dancing and cheering jubilantly outside her house after the results were declared.