Berlin - Europeans turned the US elections into an all-night party with supporters of Barack Obama rewarded by news of his presidential win in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Across the continent, expatriates, political supporters or those who simply wanted to be part of history stayed up all night to watch election returns. People cast mock votes in Warsaw while Berliners partied with hula dancers, a call-out to Hawaii, the birthplace of president-elect Obama.

"I think it is an extraordinary moment both for the US and for the world," said John Powers, an art historian who had waited up at a party in the centre of the German capital for the results from his home state of California.

The election, he said, was about "how America thinks about itself and how it sees itself in the world."

Even before voting came to an end in the United States, huge crowds had formed outside the main Democratic Party event in Berlin.

"This it the first time that I voted for someone rather than against someone," said Linden Horvath, an American living in Berlin and working as an English teacher.

"The country," she said "had been on a precipice," adding that if Obama had failed to secure victory then the United States would have risked being judged racist because his defeat could have been attributed to race.

The Berlin Democratic celebration was far from the only one in Europe. About 1,500 Americans and Germans gathered in Frankfurt to watch the election returns on a screen set up in a hotel. The Globe Bookstore in downtown Prague advertised "the all-nighter of all- nighters." Elsewhere, crowds packed into bars or private homes to debate US politics through the night.

Across the continent, there was a clear majority thrilled with Obama's win - not much of a surprise given the preference shown for the senator from Illinois throughout the campaign. A recent poll showed 74 per cent of Germans would have voted for Obama and 11 per cent for McCain. Indeed, at one gala event in Berlin, with hot dogs, popcorn and paper cutouts of the two candidates, US Ambassador John Kornblum said he was rooting for Obama.

In Athens, cheers erupted at a party, whose guests included the US ambassador, when the election was called for Obama.

Meanwhile, supporters of Republican candidate John McCain started the night with cautious optimism although many seemed resigned from the start that it would be a bad night. In central Berlin, some Republicans gathered at the Wahlkreis (Voting District) bar.

Hans Theerman, who votes in Montana but has lived in Germany for 15 years, said he was still hoping for a McCain/Palin win as German festivities started, well before polls had closed in the United States. However, he said he would not let an Obama victory, which already looked likely at that point, weigh him down.

"I'll batten down the hatches, and we'll go back to work," he said.

Living in Germany, he noted that he was often in the minority as a Republican and often had a hard time making his German friends understand his political views.

"I think that the Germans really don't understand the dynamic that's going on," he said. "There's just a number of people who don't understand America."

Jan Burdinski, programme director of the German branch of Republicans Abroad, estimated that about 150 people crowded into the bar during the night although he noted that few of the attendees were hardcore Republicans.

The party went until about 5 am (0400 GMT) before the bar lost television service and, consequently, many of its guests.

"Next time, it will be different," he said as the party wound down. He added that many Americans would soon grow weary of Democrats controlling the executive and legislative branches of the US government.

"It's a done deal, and now it's time to look forward," he said. (dpa)