Paris - At 2:30 am on Wednesday, the people gathered in a small private club near the Champs Elysees in Paris began clapping, cheering and chanting "Yes, we can," the slogan of the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, Barack Obama.

CNN had just projected that Obama would win the key state of Pennsylvania, a sign for the politically savvy members of the Representative Council of Black Associations in France (CRAN) and their friends that he was on his way to victory.

"This is an extraordinary moment for the American people," CRAN founder and president Patrick Lozes said. "But I want this moment also to bring change in the lives of our people. I want this moment to send a message to French politicians, and especially President (Nicolas) Sarkozy."

All of the approximately 250 people who had gathered in the Millenium Club - most of them black and many of them wearing red, white and blue Obama t-shirts - were of the same mind.

"This election result should speak to France, because France is falling behind the world in its treatment of minorities," said Frantz Cialec, a singer of spirituals and opera. "There is only one black deputy (out of 555) in the National Assembly. It's not normal."

"Of course France is racist," declared Patrick Lachaud of the Club Caraibe International, a Caribbean cultural association. "We feel it here every day. The facts here are very grave."

In a survey carried out by TNS-Sofres for CRAN in 2007, more than two out of three French blacks said they had been the victims of racial discrimination in their country. And more than 80 per cent said that the situation was not improving.

Lachaud said Obama's victory was "a big step forward ... This gives us a big boost and will inspire us also to say, 'Yes, we can'."

Sixteen-year-old Sontia Nkenkeu-Kelk and her 12-year-old sister Victoria both agreed that it was "important that the most powerful man in world is black."

Sontia, whose father is French and whose mother is German, said that she wanted to study international law, and that Obama's success had inspired her to specialize in American affairs.

His election "shows an evolution. It makes me hope for more," she said.

"Obama represents the diversity of the world," Angela Bousquet-Keita said while selling glasses of the wine she produces to revelers at the party. "The world is moving. He represents this movement."

"People will wake up a little bit better tomorrow," agreed Kifle Selassie, the former head of UNESCO's International Fund for the Promotion of Culture.

Obama's election was "the crowning moment of a long, creative process taking place around the world," Selassie said. "When I was covering the presidential election in the United States as a journalist 40 years ago, I never imagined this would ever happen."

Obama's victory was "as much a triumph for the whites as it is for blacks and people of mixed race," he said.

CRAN's Lozes cautioned that "Obama himself will not change the lives of French minorities. But the ball is now in Sarkozy's court."

When Obama was in Paris on July 22 to meet with Sarkozy, the French president had promised to undertake affirmative action in France, Lozes said.

"I expect him to act swiftly and decisively, so that one of his successors, in the not-too-distant future, will be black," he said. (dpa)