People celebrate the victory of President-elect Barack Obama in the early morning hours last Wednesday in the Little Haiti neighbourhood of Miami. - AP

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC):

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be seeking early engagement with United States President-elect Barack Obama to lay the foundation for improved US-Caribbean relations, CARICOM Chairman Baldwin Spencer has said.

Spencer, who is also the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the region welcomed the presidential victory of Obama - the first African American to be elected to the White House.

"I think Obama has been able to capture the imagination of the entire world, and so it was clearly a wonderful feeling as I sat and watched the returns and recognised that a new chapter in the history of the United States was indeed unfolding," Spencer said.

Obama, the Democratic Party candidate for the election, won a landslide victory over his Republican Party opponent, John McCain, sparking wild celebrations throughout the Caribbean, where some regional leaders had openly expressed support for his candidature.

New leader in barack

Spencer said that the victory goes beyond the shores of America, adding that the "world has a new leader in Barack Obama.

"As far as the Caribbean is concerned we will want to see that Barack Obama will seek to develop a more engaging relationship with the Caribbean, and indeed the western hemisphere," Spencer told CMC, adding "so that we can work together to ensure that the entire region develops in such a way that all of its people can benefit from all the resources and the programmes that he will pursue."

Tuesday's historic win clears the way for Obama's formal inauguration as the 44th president of the United States on January 20.

Spencer said that the Caribbean would make reference to outstanding issues, including trade, the question of the deportation of cri-minals back to the Caribbean, as well as the concept of development "and where the Caribbean should fit on the United States agenda going forward".