Washington - US President George W Bush on Wednesday congratulated Barack Obama on becoming the first African American ever elected to the White House and promised a smooth transition over the next two months.

"No matter how they cast their ballots, all Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday," Bush said in a brief statement at the White House Rose Garden. "Many of our citizens thought they would never live to see that day."

Miami - The victory of Democratic candidate Barack Obama in Tuesday's US presidential election was so solid that he even scored a clear win in Florida - one of the toughest states - as he made his way to the White House.

Obama obtained 3.99 million votes in the state, 50.9 per cent, to rival Republican John McCain's 3.79 million votes, 48.3 per cent of the total cast.

Islamabad - Pakistan's president, premier and opposition leaders on Wednesday congratulated US president-elect Barack Obama on his watershed win, saying they were looking forward to promoting peace and stability in the region with his cooperation.

"President Asif Ali Zardari has expressed the hope that Pakistan- US relations will be enhanced under the new American leadership that received a popular mandate in Tuesday's poll," said Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, reported the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the extension of his term in office to six years in his first state-of- the-nation address on Wednesday since succeeding Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev, 43, addressing the country's top political elite gathered in the Kremlin's most opulent St George Hall, said the proposed amendment was not a reform to the constitution, but rather a "correction."

The basic principles of the constitution would remain unchanged, he said, proposing to extend the presidential term to six from the current four years and the term for lawmakers in Russia's lower house of parliament to five.

Washington - Republican John McCain never had much of a chance to defeat Democrat Barack Obama.

He campaigned under the mushroom cloud of an imploding economy, while shackled to the staggeringly unpopular presidency of fellow Republican George W Bush.

McCain, 72, couldn't compete against the fundraising prowess of an Obama campaign that outspent the Arizona senator by a 2 to 1 ratio, and a surge in turnout as US voters were fed up with Republican leadership under Bush and poised to embrace Obama's message of "change."

New York, Nov 5: The financial crisis in the United States was main concern of the voters which led to the defeat of Senator John McCain in the race for the White House.

“I mean, just look at the figures. We have been put in the middle of a dire economic downturn, and we need change,” the Washington Post quoted Jackie Barnard, 62, of the mostly Republican bastion of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, as saying.

Preliminary poll data showed the economy was the paramount concern of 62 percent, or nearly two-thirds, of voters.