Obama re-elected as U.S. president

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama won re-election to a second term in the White House on Tuesday, beating Republican challenger Mitt Romney after a long and bitter campaign.

Obama defeated Romney in a series of key swing states despite a weak economic recovery and persistent high unemployment as U.S. voters decided between two starkly different visions for the country.

Obama's narrow wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire - all states that Romney had contested - effectively ended Romney's hopes of capturing the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House.

At least 120 million American voters were expected to cast votes in the race between the Democratic incumbent and Romney after a campaign focused on how to repair the ailing U.S. economy.

 At about 7.00am today, Obama sent out a tweet to the world: " Four more years".

Obama enters his second four-year term faced with a difficult task of tackling $1 trillion annual deficits, reducing a $16 trillion national debt, overhauling expensive social programs and dealing with a gridlocked U.S. Congress that looked likely to maintain the same partisan makeup.

Romney concedes defeat

Republican Mitt Romney conceded the U.S. presidential election to President Barack Obama early on Wednesday morning after a bitterly fought battle.

"This is a time of great challenges for America and I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation," Romney told supporters after calling Obama to congratulate him.

Obama defeated Romney in a series of key swing states, despite the weak economic recovery and stubbornly high unemployment that dogged his campaign.

Television networks called the election late on Tuesday, but the Romney campaign waited more than an hour to agree on the results in Ohio.

Reuters