Democrats nominated Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday as their presidential candidate in a historic first for a black American, sending him into battle against Republican John McCain.
In a remarkable moment of unity, Obama's one-time opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton, formally asked delegates to suspend a roll call vote of states and approve his nomination by acclamation.
"With eyes firmly fixed on the future, in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and our country, let's declare together in one voice right here right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president," she said to roars of approval inside the packed convention hall.
"I move Senator Barack Obama of Illinois be selected by the convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party," she said, a request accepted by the convention's presiding official, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi then announced that Obama had accepted the nomination.
Delegates danced and swayed back and forth to the song "Love Train," in celebration of the moment.
They had earlier granted the symbolic gesture of nominating Clinton for the candidacy in an effort aimed at party unity.
"No matter where we stood at the beginning of this campaign, Democrats stand together today," said Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a nominating speech on behalf of Obama. She had backed Clinton's candidacy.
The nomination set Obama, 47, on a path to face McCain in the November 4 election in a race that has been neck-and-neck for weeks, with McCain's Republican nominating convention to take place next week in the Minnesota city of St. Paul, Reuters reported.