AFP - The United States said Tuesday that it could take months to determine the results from the fraud-tainted presidential election in Afghanistan.
   
"It is very important that these elections are seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people and in the eyes of the international community," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
   
"And I'm not going to prejudge where this whole thing comes out... It's not going to be a matter of days or weeks. It could be a matter of months to sort out all of these allegations," Kelly added.
   
"People may have been saying that this could be finished sometime in September, but the main thing is... that the Afghan authorities do what needs to be done to ensure that all of these serious allegations are addressed," he said.

ELECTORAL FRAUD CONCERNS Caught unprepared for electoral fraud storm Karzai, Abdullah both claim victory in early vote results

   
"That's our bottom line that we end up with a credible result at the end," Kelly said.
   
The United States, he said, would like the election to reflect the will of the Afghan people so that it can work with a partner that has popular support.
   
Despite allegations of fraud and other abuses, Kelly praised the Afghan authorities for having organized elections in which millions of Afghans were able to express their choice freely.
   
In the latest development, President Hamid Karzai extended his lead Tuesday in Afghanistan's elections, for the first time passing the key 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a run-off with nearly all the votes counted.
   
However the country's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said for the first time it had found "clear and convincing evidence" of fraud in the August 20 polls.
   
Partial results released by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) gave Karzai 54.1 percent of the vote with 91.6 percent of ballots counted, putting him on course for re-election.
   
His nearest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, trailed far behind with 28.3 percent.
   
Abdullah has accused the Karzai camp of widespread ballot-stuffing in the second presidential elections since US-led forces overthrew the Taliban militia in the aftermath of the September 2001 attacks.