Obama effected the most sweeping social change in the military in decades, after a years-long crusade by activists, at a euphoric ceremony in Washington, dismissing claims by critics the new equality law would harm national security.

Overturning the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compromise that allowed gays to serve if they kept their sexuality secret, was a cherished goal of liberals but conservatives fought a tough campaign to keep it in place.

"We are not a nation that says 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' We are a nation that says, 'Out of many, we are one,'" Obama said in a euphoric ceremony at the Interior Department in Washington.

"We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot," Obama said.

Obama also expected good news from the Senate on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on a day of political validation following a testing political year marked by an anemic economy and a Republican revival.

The Senate was expected to vote during the afternoon on ratifying the treaty, which would make big cuts in US and Russian Cold War nuclear arsenals, after Obama's Democrats defeated a Republican bid to kill the pact.

Obama then planned a pre-Christmas press conference to sum up the frenetic two first years of his presidency before heading off on his Christmas holiday in his native Hawaii, to join the rest of his family.

Gay and lesbian rights activists have compared the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the racial integration of the military in 1948.

Opponents said the repeal will badly harm unit cohesion at a time when US forces are embroiled in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ultimately denigrate US security.

But Obama argued the new law would "strengthen our national security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend," adding he was certain the military would implement the law with dedication.

"No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder in order to serve the country that they love."

In an emotive speech, Obama also said that the first generation of openly gay service members would represent forebearers who had served in silence before "a moment more than two centuries in the making."

"There will never be a full accounting of the heroism demonstrated by gay Americans in service to this country. Their service has been obscured in history. It's been lost to prejudices that have waned in our own lifetimes."

The change in policy, will not be enacted overnight, however.

Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen must certify that lifting the ban on gays serving openly can be done without harming readiness, effectiveness, unit cohesion, and recruitment.

Once the certification is made, the change will enter into force within 60 days.

Obama's diplomatic triumph with START was set to come in a Senate vote, which followed a fierce partisan debate on a treaty billed by the White House as the cornerstone of his "reset" of relations with Moscow.

"We are on the brink of writing the next chapter in the 40-year history of wrestling with the threat of nuclear weapons," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair John Kerry.

Eleven Republicans broke with party leaders Tuesday eager to hand Obama a crushing defeat on Tuesday, enough to rally the two-thirds majority needed to ratify the pact, or 67 if all 100 senators are present.

"The question is not if it passes, the question is when," said Republican Senator Bob Corker, a treaty supporter.

Top Republicans, eager to build on a November 2 elections romp in which they captured the House and sliced deep into the Democrats' Senate majority, had sought to defeat the treaty with delays and "treaty-killer" amendments.

The agreement -- which had the support of virtually every living US foreign policy or national security heavyweight -- restricts each nation to a maximum of 1,550 deployed warheads, a cut of about 30 percent from a limit set in 2002, and 800 launchers and bombers.

The accord would also return US inspectors who have been unable to monitor Russia's arsenal since the treaty's predecessor lapsed in December 2009.

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