Obama declares candidacy for US presidency in 2008

Feb 10, 2007, 17:07 GMT

U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) formally announces his campaign for U.S. President in the 2008 election during a campaign rally in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, February 10, 2007. REUTERS/Jason Reed

Washington - US Democratic Senator Barack Obama Saturday announced officially his candidacy for the US presidential election in 2008.

Announcing his presidential bid to rapturous crowds on his home turf of Springfield, Illinois, Obama, 45, a fast-rising African- American, pledged to free the US 'from the tyranny of war'.

'America, it's time to bring our troops home,' he said.

Obama also committed to 'universal health care' and the struggle to combat poverty and challenges such as global warming.

He said that he had not had long to learn the ways of Washington, but had learned that 'Washington must change.'

'We can build a hopeful America,' he said.

Polls currently show Obama, the son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, as the main rival of fellow Senator Hillary Clinton to lead their left-of-centre party's bid to retake the White House when President George W Bush leaves in January 2009.

Clinton, the wife of former president Bill Clinton, has made no official move toward a campaign, but she is widely expected to run.

In a video message on the website of Chicago television station WMAQ, the senator from Illinois explained his decision to by saying that people had encouraged him to run and alluded to his meteoric rise to political stardom.

'Running for the presidency is a profound decision. I certainly didn't expect to find myself in this position a year ago,' he said. 'I've been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics.'

US President George W Bush has 'put our country in a precarious place' and led Americans into a 'tragic and costly war that should never have been waged,' Obama said, referring to the war in Iraq.

The ideological divide between Democrats and Bush's Republicans is keeping the country from solving its 'enormous challenges,' Obama said.

'That's what we have to change first: We have to change our politics. We have to come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans,' Obama said.