WASHINGTON (AFP) - Supporters of Barack Obama erupted into song and dance around the world Wednesday, from the bars of London and Sydney to a sleepy village in Kenya, after his historic US election victory. Parties spilled onto the streets from Berlin to Havana and from Paris to the small Japanese town of Obama, and Americans joined rallies in cities around the globe. Scenes of joy erupted in the US capital and across the country as raucous crowds poured onto the streets celebrating Barack Obama's triumph in the US election, honking horns, dancing and singing. A delirious, diverse crowd of about 2,000 gathered around the White House, with strangers greeting each other with high-fives and chanting Obama's name in a carnival atmosphere resembling the end of a sporting match. "La,la,la, La,la,la " Hey,hey,hey " goodbye" a crowd sung in several languages outside the White House, where President George W Bush will officially hand over power to Obama on January 20. Among the mostly youthful throng was Ted Howard, a 64-year-old African-American who was overcome with emotion, hugging fellow revelers on the sidewalk. "I never thought I'd see a day like this," said Howard, who cast his first vote for president for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and witnessed the funeral procession of the US leader after he was slain in 1963. Nearby, an improvised bongo concert echoed across Pennsylvania Avenue, where one young man held up a sign that seemed to capture the giddy mood: "Funk the government" Several blocks north of the White House, thousands flooded U street, chosen in advance for celebrations given its symbolic location as a centre of race riots that swept the city in 1968. A percussion band thumped away as ecstatic crowds danced in a light rain while others climbed on traffic light poles and bus shelters. In Times Square in New York, piercing howls of joy, dancing, and chants of "Obama Obama" broke out as gigantic television screens relayed the dramatic victory. Police struggled to keep control as the crowd spilled into the road. In Chicago, a massive crowd of 240,000 packed into a downtown park for Obama's election party went wild with joy. Amid a sea of US flags, camera flashes exploded as far as the eye could see and the mixed crowd of young and old danced, hugged and screamed as the first African-American in history succeeded with his bid for the White House. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who himself sought the presidency in 1984 and 1988 but failed to win the Democratic nomination, was seen shedding tears of joy. Street celebrations also broke out in the black area of Harlem in New York, in Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles on the West coast, and in Atlanta, Georgia and Miami, Florida in the South. A crowd in Miami watched Obama's victory speech on a big screen, with a group of Hispanic supporters chanting Obama's campaign slogan in Spanish: "Si se puede." In the Finnigan's Wake bar in the city of Philadelphia, crowds of Obama supporters let out a roar when his victory in their crucial state of Pennsylvania was announced earlier in the evening, prompting chants of "It's all over." Blacks and whites, Latinos and Asians wept with emotion as Obama appeared on the television screen, ready to pronounce his victory speech. In London, Americans munching hot dogs and swigging bottled beer crowded the Democrat-dominated Yates bar in the nightclub quarter, the second largest party in town after a bash at the US embassy. There were similar scenes across western Europe. In Berlin revellers partied on the Unter den Linden boulevard, just down the road from where Obama drew 200,000 people to hear him speak in July. Catherena Oostveen, a German-Russian actress who trained in the United States, showed up in a red-white-and-blue t-shirt and a cowboy hat. In Paris, American experts gathered at one of Ernest Hemingway's favourite watering holes as well as other bars. Across town, proudly wearing an Obama pin, Herve Moussakanda loaded up his plate with cheese before sidling up to a big screen in a nightclub. In an upmarket suburb of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, where Obama spent part of his schooldays, ex-classmate Dewi Asmara Oetojo recalled an easy-going little boy who said he wanted to be president. In Afghanistan soldiers at Bagram Air base, the biggest US base in the country, welcomed Obama's election as their new commander-in-chief, but said it would not change their mission to defeat the Taliban. "It is a historic election," Major Rory Aylward told an AFP reporter at the massive base north of Kabul. In Iraq, the other war that Obama will inherit, his win was hailed by black US soldiers and civilian workers at the sprawling Camp Speicher near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Cubans spent the hours glued to their TV sets, some capturing US channels illegally with a satellite receiver. Many of Beijing's expat bars were also packed. Some introduced a special breakfast with red and blue cocktails representing the candidates. At the swanky Marriott Renaissance hotel, 600 Chinese students, academics and government officials were hosted by US embassy officials, who set up a voting booth complete with ballot box and real ballot.