Denver, Colorado: Hillary Clinton made a triumphant arrival at the Democratic convention as delegates wildly cheered for minutes and waved white 'Hillary' signs.
The New York senator on Tuesday night appealed for the 18 million people who voted for her in the intra-party presidential race to get solidly behind rival Barack Obama in November's general elections.
"My friends, it is time to take back the country we love," Hillary said, declaring herself a "proud supporter of Barack Obama".
Hillary's historic bid for the Democratic nomination brought her more than 40 per cent of the 4,400 delegates assembled in the rocky mountain city of Denver, Colorado.
Former president Bill Clinton, Hillary's husband, will speak on Wednesday night. It was not clear if the traditional state-by-state roll call would run its full course and allow Hillary's delegates to give her a final, full-throated tribute.
Much of the earlier speeches were devoted to women's issues and the economy.
State governors took the stage from closely contested states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa, hoping to convince the electorate of Obama's ability to turn around a sluggish economy and ease the pain of soaring petrol prices.
Many governors spoke of manufacturing job losses in their own states, where blue-collar workers have been slow to warm to the Democratic candidate, and hammered McCain for following the policies of an unpopular President George W Bush.
Though Hillary was the highlighted speaker of the night, the former first lady did not deliver the so-called keynote speech for Tuesday. That was given by former Virginia governor Mark Warner, who is now locked in a hard battle for election to the US Senate.
In 2004, Obama rose to national promise when the party gave him the 'keynote' role to boost his chances of winning a US Senate seat in Illinois.
Warner chided McCain for espousing Bush's 'outdated' policies and called for bipartisan action to put the US economy back on track, mirroring some of the messages from Obama's own rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.
"The race for the future will be won when old partisanship gives way to new ideas... and when hope replaces fear," Warner said.
"Right now in this critical moment in our history, we have one shot to get it right, and the status quo just won't cut it," he added.
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