Tirana, Albania  - The United States "will remain the leader" in resolving the world's crises and promoting democracy when president-elect Barack Obama takes power in January, Albanian President Bamir Topi said Wednesday.

Topi congratulated Obama on his victory in Tuesday's election, calling it a "lesson in democracy" and "a historic day for America."

"We spent a night without sleeping," he said in the capital Tirana. "It was not only the journalists who followed the US election, but all Albanians and I believe the entire world."

Albania is one of the staunchest US allies in the Balkans, winning President George W Bush's formal approval last month to join NATO.

Washington has strongly backed inviting the poor ex-Stalinist Adriatic nation into the military alliance. (dpa)