Obama said he had called on Karzai to make a 'much more serious effort to eradicate corruption' [AFP]

"I emphasised that this has to be a point in time in which we write a new chapter based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption [and] joint efforts to accelerate the training of Afghan security forces," Obama said at the White House.

Obama's phone call to Karzai on Monday came hours after the US administration said it considered Karzai to be the legitimate president of Afghanistan.

Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election by the country's election commission after Abdullah Abdullah, his rival in a second round runoff vote, pulled out.

Tough position

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that "President Karzai has been declared the winner of the Afghan election... So obviously he's the legitimate leader of the country".

Gibbs said that Obama's decision whether to add to US troop numbers in Afghanistan would come in the forthcoming weeks, as planned.

"This decision was not dependent upon when a leader was determined. We've never said that," he said.

"Now begin the hard conversations," he added.

Spencer Ackerman, a senior reporter for the Washington Independent, said that the outcome of the Afghan election process had placed the US in a difficult position.
 
"They really have the worst of both worlds here - there is no way, procedurally, to remove the taint of fraud in the first round of elections, and yet they are stuck with the result.
 
"The Obama administration [is likely] to focus on governance below the national level, to see if they can get a more legitimate or accepted method of governance out in the provinces beyond Kabul. But there is really no way that they can ignore the Karzai government."

Rival pullout

Karzai had urged Abdullah, left, to reconsider his decision to quit the runoff [EPA]

Afghanistan's election panel announced incumbent Karzai's victory in the presidential election on Monday after a runoff planned for November 7 was cancelled.

Azizullah Ludin, chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), declared Karzai victor at a news conference in Kabul, despite saying earlier that cancelling the runoff would be unconstitutional.

"Under the law, there is no alternative but to have these elections," Ludin had said.

Zekria Barakzai, the IEC's deputy chief electoral officer, contradicted Ludin's initial statement, said later: "Today's decision by the IEC was according to the provision of the constitution which requires at least two candidates for the second round."

The discovery of widespread fraud in the first round resulted in Karzai losing his more than 50 per cent advantage forcing him into a second round.

The validity of the electoral process and the independence of the IEC have both been called into question.

Abdullah cited the government's refusal to accept his demands for changes to the IEC for his decision to leave Karzai as the sole candidate in the runoff.

The cancellation of the runoff followed a meeting on Monday involving Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, Karzai and Abdullah.

Sacking demand

The first round of Afghanistan's elections on August 20 was so badly affected by ballot-box stuffing and distorted tallies that more than one million votes were thrown out.

Abdullah had demanded electoral reforms that included the sacking of Ludin and suspension of four ministers who campaigned for the incumbent president.

He told supporters on Sunday a "transparent election is not possible" and that the Afghan government has been illegitimate since May.

"I'll not take part in the election," Abdullah had said, adding that he had "not taken this decision easily".

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