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KABUL: The United States and UN chief Ban Ki-moon led world powers in congratulating Hamid Karzai on Monday, after the Afghan president was re-elected following the cancellation of a run-off.
The war-stricken country's Independent Election Commission (IEC) cancelled the run-off election this weekend after Karzai's only challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of the contest.
"We congratulate President Karzai on his victory in this historic election and look forward to working with him," the US embassy in Kabul said in a statement.
It said United States looked forward to cooperating with "his new administration, the Afghan people and our partners in the international community to support Afghanistan's progress towards institutional reforms, security and prosperity."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon - who met Karzai and Abdullah in a push to end the political chaos - welcomed the decision to cancel the run-off and was the first world figure to congratulate the president.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country is the second biggest contributor to the 100,000 foreign force in Afghanistan, telephoned Karzai to urge him to plot a course of national unity.
"They discussed the importance of the president moving quickly to set out a unifying programme for the future of Afghanistan," said a spokesman for Brown.
NATO powers France and Germany urged Karzai to work with his defeated rival to end the political strife.
"We expect the Afghan president to work hard to reunite the two camps... and try to be the president of all Afghans," Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters in Paris.
His French counterpart Bernard Kouchner said that European governments should work closely with the United States to persuade Karzai to come to an arrangement with Abdullah.
Afghanistan's neighbour Pakistan offered its "heartiest felicitations" to Karzai.
"I have great pleasure to extend to you my heartiest felicitations on your re-election," President Asif Ali Zardari said in a message.
Russia's foreign ministry said the election had "opened the way for the formation of the new national government, whose great task is the key problem of stabilising conditions in the country." - AFP/de
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