A divided world is coming to terms with the prospect of four more years of US President George W. Bush, with friends hailing his re-election and critics vowing to make the best of it.
Allies such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi saw Mr Bush's victory as bolstering the US-declared "war on terror". But some disenchanted Europeans urged him to heal transatlantic rifts.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose outspoken opposition to war in Iraq angered Washington but helped him win re-election in 2002, sought common ground with Mr Bush.
"Our security and stability are threatened by international terrorism, the risk of the spread of weapons of mass destruction, regional crises, poverty, climate change and epidemics. These challenges can only be met together," Mr Schroeder said in a telegram to Mr Bush last night.
French President Jacques Chirac, another fierce critic of last year's Iraq war, congratulated Mr Bush and also spoke of "our joint fight against terrorism".
Mr Bush's staunchest ally in the Iraq conflict, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, told parliament that peace in the Middle East was key to defeating terrorism and the world must work with Bush to achieve it.
"The need to revitalise the Middle East peace process is the single most pressing political challenge in our world today," Mr Blair told reporters later.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, congratulated President Bush on his re-election and said he feared Ireland would have suffered economically had Senator John Kerry been elected.
The European Union said it looked forward to strengthening ties with the United States. Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who withdrew Spanish troops from Iraq after his March election win following Madrid attacks claimed by a group linked to al-Qaeda, expressed his wish to work with Mr Bush.
But many Arabs forecast further bloodshed in the Middle East because of what they saw as the misguided policies of Mr Bush, who has backed away after seeing his peace "road map" for the region shredded by violence.
Both sides in the Middle East conflict congratulated Mr Bush, however.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in Paris, where he is undergoing medical tests, that he hoped his second term would lead to Middle East peace and "guarantee the just national rights of the Palestinian people," an aide said.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said: "We congratulate the American people for their choice."
But with the exception of Israelis and some Iranians, Middle Eastern peoples reacted with resigned disappointment. Mr Khaled Maeena, editor of Saudi newspaper Arab News, said: "Four more years means Bush will be relentless in fighting so-called terrorism. More innocent people will be victims. . . . All the Saudis I've seen so far are disappointed."