Following his triumph over Republican John McCain in Tuesday's election, the Democrat faces the most challenging first 100 days of any president in modern times -- and he is not shying away from the awesome responsibility.

"For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century," he said in his victory speech.

"The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term," said the freshman senator from Illinois, who will be one of America's youngest presidents aged 47.

"But America -- I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you -- we as a people will get there."

Even in the best of times, a US president carries the onerous burden of captaining the biggest economy and most powerful military the world has ever seen.

And these are not the best of times. When he takes office on January 20 to succeed President George W. Bush, Obama must confront a looming recession and war in two theaters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And he must do it while being seen as a mighty symbol for the advancement of African-Americans in a nation where five decades ago, the marriage of his white mother and black father would have been illegal in 16 states.

Obama clinched the Democratic nomination in large part owing to his consistent stand against the Iraq war. He used to say his first action after his inauguration would be to convene his military brass and map a way out.

But since then, the financial crisis has ripped through Wall Street. Credit markets are still reeling despite a 700-billion-dollar bailout plan hustled through Congress.

The US economy has shed three quarters of a million jobs this year.

Last week, Obama listed three pressing priorities, including energy independence and enacting universal health care for Americans reeling from the economic tumult.

But he told CNN that "none of this can be accomplished if we continue to see a potential meltdown in the banking system or the financial system."

"So that's priority number one, making sure that the plumbing works in our capitalist system," Obama said.

He refused to detail his potential choice of Treasury secretary -- but noted that his economic advisers include ex-Treasury secretary Larry Summers, former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker and billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Obama also backed a call by General David Petraeus, the former commander in Iraq and now supremo of all US forces in the Middle East, to initiate contacts with moderate Taliban elements in Afghanistan.

"To those who would tear this world down -- we will defeat you," he said on an electric night in Chicago, striking a different tone than in his stump speech vow to "snuff out" Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Despite record-breaking deficits that will be made worse by the downturn, Obama is sticking to one trillion dollars in spending promises topped by a tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans.

The Democrat has also pledged, in short order, to shut down the "war on terror" detention center at Guantanamo Bay, begin to roll back the tides of global warming and mend foreign alliances frayed to breaking point under Bush.

He will be helped by his party's stronger lock on Congress after Tuesday's election saw the Republicans slip deeper into the minority in both the House of Representatives and Senate.

Obama's most daunting task of all is more abstract -- sailing the nation into more harmonious political waters after years of furious broadsides between Washington's warring camps.

"And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices," he said. "I need your help, and I will be your president too."

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