Solemnity and celebration as inauguration nears

Barack Obama approached his inauguration as the 44th US President with a mix of solemnity and celebration on Sunday, laying a wreath at a military grave and then swaying along at a concert featuring Bruce Springsteen and Beyonce.

The events reflected popular excitement about his choice as the first black US President tempered by anxiety about the fact that the US is fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and faces its worst economic crisis since the Depression.

Walking side by side, Mr Obama and vice president-elect Joe Biden placed a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns before braving a cold winter's day to take in a concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the neoclassical temple that honours the 16th US President.

The President-elect, an Illinois Democrat, often echoes Republican Abraham Lincoln, who led the country during the Civil War, ended slavery in the US and who, Mr Obama said on Sunday, "in so many ways made this day possible."

Accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and their daughters Malia and Sasha, Mr Obama nodded, clapped and rocked along to the music at the concert, which included Stevie Wonder singing Higher Ground and U2 paying tribute to Martin Luther King Jr with Pride (In the Name of Love).

Mr Obama sang along as folk singer Pete Seeger led the crowd in Woody Guthrie's patriotic anthem This Land is Your Land.

Spliced between the songs, actors Denzel Washington, Laura Linney and Tom Hanks gave speeches that evoked past crises in US history, including the Civil War, the Depression and the Cold War.

"There is no doubt that our road will be long, that our climb will be steep. But never forget that the true character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard," he said.

"Despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead, I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the US will endure, that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders will live on."

Mr Obama has vowed to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to jolt the country out of a deepening recession. He has said he wants to bring US combat forces out of Iraq within 16 months of taking office, but his ability to do so hinges on violence in the country continuing to decline and on the capabilities of Iraqi security forces. Becky Kusar, 29, a Democrat who voted for Mr Obama and was visiting Washington with her husband and three-year-old daughter, expressed both enthusiasm about Mr Obama's election as well as anxiety about the economy and the war in Iraq.

Sources: Reuters and America.gov.