Denver, Colorado - Below are a series of excerpts from Barack Obama's speech Thursday night accepting the Democratic Party's nomination to be its candidate for president of the United States.

"With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States."

"We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more."

Denver, Aug 29: Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has said in his acceptance speech that the forthcoming election was a chance for America to keep the promise alive in the 21st century. Accepting the nomination to run for the President of the US, Obama, in his address at the party's National Convention at Invesco stadium, said: “This moment, this election, is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive.”

Denver, Colorado - Republican presidential candidate John McCain congratulated Democrat Barack Obama on his nomination Thursday, but a McCain spokesman said that Obama's acceptance speech did nothing to ease voters' concerns about his inexperience.

McCain, in an advertisement that aired on television networks just before Obama formally accepted the party nomination for president, said it was "truly a good day for America."

Denver, Colorado - Former vice president Al Gore on Thursday sought to assure US voters that Barack Obama has the experience to lead the country in difficult times and to solve the "planetary emergency" of climate change, Gore's own signature issue.

Gore took the stage to a massive roar from the crowd of 75,000 that shook Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado, where Obama was to give a speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination later in the evening.

Denver, Colorado - John Lewis, a black congressman who shared the podium when Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous I Have A Dream speech, called Thursday for Democrats to "march on the ballot box" to elect the country's first African-American president.

Lewis spoke at Denver's Denver's Invesco Field on the 45th anniversary of the event, just hours before Senator Barack Obama, 47, was to accept the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Obama is the first black presidential nominee of a major party in the United States.

Denver, Colorado - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is vowing to end US dependence on Middle East oil within 10 years if elected president, according to excerpts released ahead of his speech to the Democratic Party Thursday in Denver.

"For the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East," Obama said.