Cubans spent the hours into early Wednesday glued to their televisions, watching the US elections that many said they hoped would result in Barack Obama becoming president.

`This is a historic day and it`s also really important for Cuba. Without a shadow of a doubt we are for Obama. We are going to stay awake watching right to the end,` one Havana resident, Leornardo Farinas, told AFP without diverting his gaze from the screen.

The 35-year-old architecture design technician was surrounded by family and friends.

In homes everywhere, the same scene was repeated, with Cubans watching the program `Mesa Redonda` (`Round Table`), dedicated to covering the US elections.

In his apartment in Old Havana, Elisa, a 36-year-old who declined to give her last name for obvious reasons, said she complemented her viewing with US channels caught illegally with a satellite receiver.

`It`s not that I`m a fan of politics, but these elections are very important. If Obama finally wins, many things could start to change between Cuba and the United States. Not to mention travel and remittances that would be very good,` she said.

That sentiment reflected a widely held belief in Cuba that an Obama victory could overturn the 46-year-old US economic embargo on the communist island state, which was hardened under reviled current US President George W. Bush.

Many Cubans are looking forward to the day travel restrictions are lifted on going to and from the United States, where 1.5 million Cubans live, mainly in Florida.

The chief point of optimism is Obama`s declaration that he is ready to talk about easing restrictions on travel and on remittances -- the money US Cubans send to family and friends in Cuba.

Obama`s Republican rival, John McCain, in contrast has pledged to maintain Bush`s hardline stance against Cuba if elected.

Early Tuesday, in the official press, former leader Fidel Castro -- who remains first secretary of the ruling communist party even as he convalesces out of the public view -- gave explicit backing to Obama.

Obama, wrote Castro, `is without a doubt more intelligent, cultured and composed than his Republican adversary.`

McCain, he added, `is old, bellicose, uneducated, not very intelligent and in poor health.`

Figures from Cuba`s opposition spent Tuesday night at the residence of the US diplomatic mission in Havana watching US channels report on the US vote.

`All these years, the policy of the United States has served as a pretext for intransigent sectors of the Cuban government to justify repression and mistakes in the worsening bilateral ties,` said one, Oscar Espinosa.

A group of US businessmen attending a trade show in Havana were gathered in a hotel watching the exit poll projections go in Obama`s favor

`We need a president who will change ties with Cuba. A big and rapid change is needed,` said one of them, John Parke Wright.

Analysts, diplomats and even some Cuban officials opined that an Obama win and an expected subsequent relaxing of US policy towards Cuba would represent a challenge for the government run by Fidel`s brother Raul Castro.

Vice President Carlos Lage said, however, that, whoever won in the United States, Cuba would forge on with its defense preparations and reinforcing its socialist system.

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque did suggest, though, that Obama would be a more `respectful` president than McCain, whom he described as `a political dinosaur.`