Obama Elected 44th US President - Nov 22, 2008

Democrat Barack Obama today scripted history capturing the White House in a landslide trouncing Republican John McCain to become the first Black President of the United States.

After an extraordinary nearly two-year election campaign, the 47-year-old Illinois Senator, born to a Kenyan father and White American mother, secured 338 electoral college votes against 155 of McCain, according to CNN projections.

72-year-old McCain conceded defeat and urged all Americans to join him in congratulating his rival.

In his concession statement in Phoenix, he said Obama had his goodwill and he believed that the victor would make necessary compromises to bridge differences and defend the security of the country in the "dangerous world."

Obama will be sworn in as the 44th US President on January 20 next year, replacing Republican incumbent George W Bush at the end of his eight-year rule and marking a new milestone in American history 45 years after the peak of civil rights movement of Martin Luther King.

The charismatic Democrat, who had defeated Hillary Clinton in the primaries to clinch the party nomination, led a landslide expanding his party's majorities in both chambers of the US Congress -- House of Representatives and Senate, rejecting Bush's leadership.

The Democratic winner immediately faces huge challenges in the form of worsening US economy and the mess he inherits from Bush in the American war in Iraq.