US President George Bush has won a second term in office today after his election opponent Mr John Kerry called him to concede defeat. Mr Bush won 51 per cent of the national vote to Mr Kerry's 48 per cent.
Mr Bush has 254 electoral college votes while Mr Kerry has 252 college votes. Ohio, with 20 electoral votes has yet to complete its vote tally.
But with Mr Bush leading there by more than 100,000 votes, Democratic senator, Mr Kerry accepted he was beaten and conceded.
Mr Kerry called Mr Bush at 11am (Eastern Time) to concede defeat.
A spokesperson in the White House said President Bush told Senator Kerry that he was an "admirable, worthy" opponent who should be proud of the presidential campaign he ran.
Spokesman Scott McClellan gave some details of the phone call Kerry made in which the Massachusetts Democrat conceded defeat to the president.
"I think you were an admirable, worthy opponent," Bush told Kerry, according to McClellan. "You waged one tough campaign. I hope you are proud of the effort you put in. You should be."
Mr Kerry will publicly concede defeat in a statement at 6pm Irish time. Mr Bush will then make a statement at 8pm Irish time.
Earlier, the White House said it was confident Mr Bush's lead in Ohio was "statistically insurmountable".
However, Mr Bush held off on a formal victory declaration to give Democrat Mr John Kerry "time to reflect" on the results.
So far, 48 of 51 states have been called, including the District of Colombia. Mr Bush has an estimated 51 per cent of the popular vote, while Mr Kerry has 48 per cent. Projected results give 28 states to the incumbent and 20 to his opponent.
Supporters of John Kerry await election results in Copley Square in Boston early today.
Three states - Ohio, New Mexico and Iowa - remain undeclared. Problems have been reported with vote-counting machines in two counties in Iowa, meaning a result could possibly be delayed for a day. But with only seven electoral votes in Iowa and five in New Mexico, results there will not effect the overall result.
Mr Kerry's running mate, Mr John Edwards, refused to concede Ohio this morning. "We have waited four years for this victory, we can wait one more night," he said. "John Kerry and I made a promise to the US people, that in this election every vote would count and every vote would be counted. We are keeping our word and we will fight for every vote. You deserve no less."
The Bush campaign said Mr Edwards's refusal to concede Ohio was delusional. "The people of Ohio have spoken and John Kerry has lost," said campaign spokesman Mr Steve Schmidt.There are an estimated 175,000 provisional ballots - votes cast pending authentication - yet to be counted in Ohio, and the Kerry campaign has promised to fight for every vote. If the number of uncounted provisional ballots turns out to be greater than the difference between the candidates, they will have to be authenticated and counted.
The outcome is determined by the "electors" in the Electoral College. On the basis of the projections so far, Mr Bush has 254 Electoral College votes, and Mr Kerry has 252. Each state has a certain number of Electoral College votes attached to it, based in part on its population. Victors in any given states control all of these votes. Candidates need 270 Electoral College votes to win the election.
Mr Bush was victorious in 28 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Mr Kerry won in 20: California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.
Unusually large numbers of voters turned out yesterday after a deadlocked campaign marked by deep divisions over the war in Iraq, the battle against terrorism and the economy.