PHILADELPHIA, Jan 17: President-elect Barack Obama, tracing the train route Abraham Lincoln took nearly a century and a half earlier, undertook the final leg of his inaugural journey to the US capital on Saturday, pledging to reclaim America’s spirit but also warning of steep challenges facing the country.

“Starting now, let’s take up in our own lives the work of perfecting our union,” he told several hundred invited guests gathered inside a hall at Philadelphia’s historic 30th Street train station before his trip to Washington where he will be inaugurated on Tuesday as the first African-American US president.

“Let’s build a government that is responsible to the people and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable. ... Let’s make sure this election is not the end of what we do to change America, but the beginning and the hope for the future.”

While talking about the future, Mr Obama reflected on the past, echoing the words of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln and president John F. Kennedy. He cited the founding fathers who risked everything with no assurance of success in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 when they declared independence from the British king.

“They were willing to put all they were and all they had on the line — their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honour — for a set of ideals that continue to light the world: That we are equal. That our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness come not from our laws, but from our maker. And that a government of, by, and for the people can endure.”

It was a momentous time for the Obamas. And for Michelle Obama, it was also her 45th birthday.

At the outset, Mr Obama told a crowd gathered in a flag-draped room that the same perseverance and idealism displayed by the nation’s founders are needed to tackle the difficulties of today. He cited the faltering economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — “one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely” — the threat of global warming and US dependence on foreign oil.

Mr Obama was travelling from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was picking up Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and then Baltimore before arriving at Washington’s Union Station after nightfall.

The train was also to make “slow rolls” through the towns of Claymont, Delaware, and Edgewood, Maryland, so more people could see Mr Obama waving from the back balcony of the rail car. Curious onlookers also were expected to gather on overpasses, parking lots and commuter train stations hoping to get a glimpse of the president-elect.

Mr Obama was to deliver a speech before as many as 100,000 at Baltimore’s War Memorial Plaza. Pressing the inaugural theme of service and community, event planners called for drives to collect canned food for the needy in Wilmington and Baltimore to coincide with his stops.

Meanwhile, plans were going ahead for an outdoor inauguration ceremony in Washington despite cold weather forecasts for next week. Somewhere between 1 million and 2 million people are expected to make their way to Washington for the inauguration.—AP