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Barack Obama this morning declared "change has come to America" as he emerged from one of the most extraordinary elections in US history to become his country's first black president.

There were tumultuous scenes at a victory party with more than 200,000 people crammed into and around Grant Park in Chicago, when TV networks simultaneously declared him the winner at 11pm Eastern Time, bringing an emphatic end to the Bush years.

Many, including civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, had tears in their eyes.

At midnight, the 47-year-old Illinois senator - son of a white mother from Kansas and a Kenyan father - stepped on stage holding the hand of his wife Michelle and his daughters Malia and Sasha to a rapturous, pulsating ovation, and promised the world that a "new dawn of American leadership is at hand".

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy - tonight is your answer," he said.

Wins in the key battleground states of Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania had by 2am (0700 GMT) helped Mr Obama to a landslide total of 349 Electoral College votes to his rival John McCain's 147 - vastly more than the 270 he needed to win. By comparison, President Bush did not win more than 286 votes in either of his victories.

He took a clutch of once-Republican states - Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa and Nevada. Results were still to come in from two states - Missouri and North Carolina - both of which voted for George W Bush in 2004.

The popular vote was much closer: Obama had 51.7 per cent to 47 per cent with 84 per cent of all precincts tallied.

In a victory speech punctuated by frequent chants of "yes, we can", Mr Obama said the long lines of voters standing in line for hours had done so because they believed "this time must be different, that their voice could be that difference".

He added: "It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America...

"Let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look not only at ourselves, but each other."

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