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Bill Clinton delivered a full-throated and unequivocal endorsement of Barack Obama last night, telling an ecstatic crowd at the Democratic convention that his wife's former rival for party's nomination "is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world."

After weeks of lingering resentments between Mr Clinton and the Obama campaign, and a primary battle in which both he and his wife claimed that her rival was unfit for the job of commander-in-chief, the former president threw his full support behind the nominee in a speech that was a powerful call to arms for party unity.

Mr Clinton was following his wife's similarly forceful backing of Mr Obama on Tuesday night. Yet the former president - who has been privately seething over the way his reputation was tarnished during his wife's bruising primary battle - went even further in his praise, declaring something that Mrs Clinton did not: that Mr Obama is ready to be commander-in-chief and lead America in a dangerous world.

"Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job," Mr Clinton said to roars of approval and thousands of waving, handheld American flags.

He added: "Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States." Referring to his own presidential bid 16 years ago - and actually echoing his wife's own talking points during her primary fight against Mr Obama - Mr Clinton said: "We prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. Sound familiar? It didn't work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won't work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."

Jabbing a finger, he declared: "I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November."

Only three weeks ago Mr Clinton, when asked, could not even bring himself to say that his wife's former rival was ready to be president. He has felt particularly aggrieved at accusations that he made racially charged comments during the primary campaign. He has also felt insulted and angered by what he has felt has been Mr Obama's belittling of his eight-year presidency and achievements in office.

The Clintons spent weeks pushing for the former First Lady to picked as Mr Obama's running mate, but Mr Clinton was even magnanimous about the fact that she was not chosen - or indeed even vetted. Referring to the Democratic nominee's choice of Joe Biden, Mr Clinton said: "In his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he hit it out of the park."

Tonight's speech was not only the clearest of declarations by Mr Clinton that he is ready to put the bitterness of the primary campaign behind him - publicly at least - but it was also something of a badly needed reaffirmation of love by the party faithful. This has been an extremely difficult year for the former president, as he has seen not only seen his wife vanquished in her White House bid, but his own reputation sullied and an era in which his unrivalled dominance of the party has been abruptly ended by a figure from a younger generation.

As he took to the stage in Denver's Pepsi Centre, the crowd gave a deafening and sustained ovation that lasted four minutes, with chants of "Bill! Bill! Bill!" It only ended after repeated pleas by Mr Clinton for them to take their seats. It was the greatest reception he has received since his wife's campaign began last year, and threatened to overshadow the main speaker of the night: Mr Biden.

"In the end, my candidate didn't win," Mr Clinton said. "But I'm very proud of the campaign she ran." He added: "Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she'll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us."

Referring to his own childhood in the Arkansas town of Hope - and his 1992 campaign theme as the "Man from Hope" - Mr Clinton said: "Barack Obama will lead us away from division and fear of the last eight years and back to unity and hope. If, like me, you believe America must always be a place called Hope, then join Hillary, Chelsea and me in making Barack Obama the next president of the United States."

Mr Clinton offered measured praise for the Republican John McCain, saying he had served heroically in Vietnam. "He loves our country every bit as much as we all do," Mr Clinton said. "And as a senator, he has shown his independence of right-wing orthodoxy on several issues."

But, he said, Mr McCain "still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years."

The address elicited some nostalgia of its own among the delegates. "He can still mesmerise a crowd," said an Oregon delegate Sam Sappington.

Meanwhile, Mr Obama arrived in Denver in preparation for his acceptance speech before an open air crowd of up to 80,000 in the Invesco football stadium tonight. Pictures revealed that the backdrop for the speech is an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple, a tableau that the McCain campaign immediately mocked as "the Temple of Obama".

Earlier, in a carefully choreographed roll call vote that gave some of Mrs Clinton's supporters the chance to show their unrelenting devotion, Mr Obama was officially nominated as the Democratic candidate when the former First Lady halted the floor vote, leaving her former rival to be nominated by acclamation. It was an historic moment, giving him a prize never before held by an African American.

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