Washington: US President George W Bush today (Nov 3, 2004) won another four-year term in the White House as his Democratic rival John Kerry conceded defeat in one of the most bitterly fought cliff-hanger contest.

Capping a long night of tense vote-counting, Kerry spoke to Bush over telephone to concede the key State of Ohio, which held the key to decide who would be the next American President, at 1600 GMT (21:30 hrs IST).

During the telephonic conversation that is said to have lasted nearly five minutes, Kerry congratulated Bush after the Democrat candidate's chances of closing the gap with Bush in Ohio, where Bush surged ahead by 145,000 votes, appeared increasingly dim.

Fifty-eight year-old Bush told Kerry, 60, that he was "gracious" after the Democrat conceded defeat.

A Democratic source told US wire service that Bush called Kerry a "worthy, tough and honourable opponent."

Kerry told Bush that the country was too divided and Bush agreed. "We really have to do something about it," Kerry said.

Kerry's call to Bush came hours after the White House Chief of Staff Andy Card said President Bush has "statistically insurmountable" number of votes in make-or-break Ohio and won the re-election with a "decisive margin."

"We are convinced that President Bush has won re-election with at least 286 Electoral College votes and he also had a margin of three and half million popular votes," Card said.

Kerry spoke to Bush after weighing the prospects of possible legal challenge in what could have been a repeat of the bitter memories of a harangued recount of Florida votes in the previous Presidential poll in 2000.

The Democrats had earlier said that at least 250,000 provisional ballots remained uncounted which made a definite result impossible.

But after Kerry conferred with his top aides, he gave up the hard-fought battle and called Bush.