'Democracy needs you,' Barack Obama tells farewell rally

US President Barack Obama used a farewell address in Chicago to encourage Americans to resist racism, closed-mindedness and economic inequality, saying they were a threat to democracy.

Speaking in the city where he launched his political career, the country's first black commander-in-chief declared his continued confidence in the American experiment to resist "the rise of naked partisanship".

Obama "had hoped to be talking about passing on the baton to fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton", The Guardian says. "Instead Donald Trump's stunning victory implied an existential threat and called for him to paint on a bigger canvas."

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He repeated his previous pledge to support his successor, yet "his speech was a thinly veiled rebuke of several of the positions Mr Trump staked out during the campaign", the New York Times says, "from climate change to barring Muslims from entering the country".

At times dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief, Obama told the crowd: "We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others."

The President ended on a positive note, saying he was hopeful future generations would find a way to work together. "Yes, we can," he said. "Yes, we did."

The speech was greeted by chants of "four more years", but were dismissed by the President. "I can't do that," he said, smiling. US presidents can serve a maximum of two terms.

This speech "highlighted a stark difference" between Obama and Trump, said the BBC's New York correspondent Nick Bryant: "Obama's preference for delivering reflective and historically literate orations, and Trump's penchant for expressing himself in tweets."