From Jerusalem to Jakarta and from Nairobi to Moscow, tens of millions around the world watched Barack Obama become president of the United States on Tuesday, feeling a mix of hope that he'd bring peace to a war-torn world and doubts about what one man could accomplish.

In Kenya, where Obama's father was born, hundreds of people from all walks of life and ethnic communities sat in the great court of the University of Nairobi, counting the hours and minutes until the inauguration.

When he took the oath, the crowd leapt to its feet, erupting in cheers of "Yes we can!" and "Obama! Odinga!" Both Obama and Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga are descended from Kenya's Luo tribe.

"There are no words to describe how I'm feeling," said David Osienya, a 24-year-old literature student. Obama "has shown us it is time for us young people to change society after our old politicians here nearly took us to civil war.

A similar scene played out in Jakarta, Indonesia, where Obama lived as a child for four years with his mother. About a thousand excited people crowded into a hotel ballroom in the Indonesian capital to watch the ceremony.

Among the most excited was Ati Kitjanto, a former classmate of Obama's at the Muslim Jalan Besuki school.

"We're very excited that somebody who was in my class and lived in Indonesia has made it this far," Kitjanto said in a telephone interview. "We feel like some of his personality was molded somehow when he was in Indonesia."

Kitjanto said that an Obama-led White House would surely look on countries in Asia and around the globe with greater sympathy than the Bush administration did.

"We're very happy that someone who understands and respects other nations leads America," she said.

Obama's message sparked a different reaction in the Middle East, where many Arabs said they didn't expect much change in a U.S. foreign policy they blamed for the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

Ahmad Abdul-Raheem Mezel, 30, a resident of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, voiced a common view, that Obama would do little to improve the lives of everyday Arabs.

"I do not think that Obama will bring any good or prosperity to our life since the former administration spent six years promising that without making any of that come true," Mezel said.

"Maybe he will try, but he won't be successful, as there are many strong hands behind curtains that control him. He has not become U.S. president without satisfying those hands."

About two dozen black Iraqis in the southeastern town of Basra, however, cheered Obama's inauguration.

"Electing a black president is a victory for mankind and all the poor and unjust people in the world," said Abdul Hussein. "This moment is a great moment, morally and materially, because this moment challenges all the bad systems that were oppressing humanity."

In the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were still digging out of the rubble of Israel's three-week war on the militant Islamic group Hamas, few shared the rest of the world's hope for change under President Obama.

As Obama began his inaugural address, most of Gaza City was shrouded in darkness, the war having cut electricity to more than half the Gaza Strip.

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