Obama's victory is DiCaprio's gift

Leonardo DiCaprio, who just turned 34, says the election of Barack Obama to the post of US president is the best birthday gift he could have possibly got.

According to reports: "People keep asking me what I want for a present so I tell them I have the best birthday gift I can possible get, and that's this new president. I'm so excited." The actor celebrated his 34th birthday on Tuesday.

He was in London to promote his new movie Body Of Lies , in which he plays a CIA agent hunting a terrorist in Iraq and Jordan.

Fiercely anti-war, DiCaprio hopes that the new president will prove to be good news for Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Barack Obama's foreign policy positions are very different from the last administration. I think we are going to see some profound changes in the United States and it's going to reverberate throughout the rest of the world.

"The good thing now is that a whole new generation of young people have spoken and have voted for change and new policies, and all we can do now is support the new president and give him the tools that he needs," he said.

Despite his forthright political opinions, it's clear he hasn't been reading up on the British politicians. Asked if he had an opinion on Gordon Brown and David Cameron, he laughed: "Not right now, no. I'm still in Barack world, still reeling from that victory!"