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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday acclaimed Afghan President Hamid Karzai for accepting acclamation artifice findings that invalidated nearly a third of the votes cast for him in August.
Obama said the breakthrough offers new achievement that a credible Kabul government will appear to accomplice with the U.S. and NATO in battling a resurgent Taliban insurgency and blocking al-Qaida's return.
Obama told reporters that he batten by buzz with the Afghan admiral after Karzai bowed to U.S. burden and appear that he agreed to a runoff acclamation Nov. 7, acknowledging that he fell abbreviate of a majority in the first balloting.
The aboriginal vote count had put Karzai well aloft the 50 percent mark he needed to be declared the outright winner, but a U.N.-based analysis bent that hundreds of bags of his votes were tainted. Until Tuesday it was unclear whether Karzai would acquire the findings and accede to a runoff.
"President Karzai and the other candidates have shown that they have the interests of the Afghan bodies at heart," Obama said. "This is a reflection of a charge to the aphorism of law and the insistence that the Afghan people's will should be done."
In his animadversion at the White House, Obama accepted the work of U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who was joined in talks in Kabul over the weekend by Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who active the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Obama additionally acknowledged the work of American troops angry in Afghanistan.
In an Associated Press blast account from Dubai, Kerry said Tuesday that Karzai had acquainted acutely afflicted by the burden put on him to acqui! re a run off and the implication of Afghan incompetence.
"President Karzai really acutely believes he had won the acclamation and he acquainted the action was awry and he acquainted that the all-embracing association was kind of conspiring to push for a different outcome," Kerry said.
"He acquainted very acutely about the flaws of the process. He had bodies within his government, bodies within the acclamation agency who acquainted they were actuality angered about putting together a adulterated acclamation process. There were a lot of very deep feelings about Afghanistan's right to run its election, its adequacy in running it and so forth."
Obama put a positive circuit on Karzai's decision.
"President Karzai's effective actions established an important antecedent for Afghanistan's new democracy," Obama said in a account issued beforehand Tuesday. "The Afghan constitution and laws are strengthened by President Karzai's decision, which is in the best interests of the Afghan people."
In reviewing its action for the war in Afghanistan - including contemplation of sending tens of bags added U.S. troops next year - the White House has about questioned whether the Afghan government is too corrupt to serve as a worthwhile accomplice in the action adjoin a Taliban insurgency.
Administration admiral on Tuesday appeared to signal that Karzai had taken a footfall in the right direction.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed Karzai's advertisement as a addition for Afghan democracy. She fabricated no absolute mention of the fraudulent Karzai votes that were befuddled out, although she referred to "a asperous and contentious" acclamation and weeks of "debate over the flaws in the vote."
"We abide committed to partnering with the Afghan bodies and their government on our shared objectives of deepening good gove! rnance, arrest corruption, accretion economic opportunities and improving aegis for all Afghans," she said in a accounting statement.
Obama charcoal beneath burden from some Republicans to complete his action review and adjudge on troop levels.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a arch apostle of bolstering U.S. troop levels, said Tuesday he was admiring by Karzai's decision and argued that bigger aegis is the key to architecture a credible Kabul government.
"It is unrealistic to apprehend Afghan governance to improve significantly without bigger security," McCain said. "That is why it is essential to implement the properly resourced counterinsurgency action that Gen. Stanley McChrystal and our senior commanders have alleged for, and that is why I abide to urge President Obama to provide our aggressive and noncombatant leaders in Afghanistan with the assets they charge as quickly as possible."
The White House said Obama additionally alleged Eikenberry to thank him for his collaborative work with Kerry and to get an amend on the acclamation situation. Obama additionally alleged Abdullah Abdullah, the above Afghan foreign minister who came in second in the August vote and will face off adjoin Karzai on Nov. 7.
Eikenberry and Kerry had been acutely engaged with Karzai and other Afghan government admiral over the accomplished several days, apparently succeeding in persuading Karzai that he must acquire the artifice probe results.
Kerry, who had met with Karzai at atomic four times afore the announcement, was at the Afghan president's ancillary back the advertisement was fabricated in Kabul.
In interviews over the weekend from Kabul, Kerry said the acclamation action had to be acclimatized afore the Obama administration could make a articular decision about whether to send additional troops and to accomplish other assets to stabilizing Afghanista! n.
< class="ap-story-p">Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meanwhile, said the Obama administration needs to adjudge on a war action and not "sit on our hands" waiting for acclamation after-effects and a government to appear in Kabul. In animadversion to reporters traveling with him to Asia, the Pentagon arch said Obama will have to make his decisions in the ambience of "evolving" issues.White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it has not been bent whether Obama will wait to advertise an Afghan action until after the after-effects of the runoff. Gibbs told reporters he still expects that advertisement to be fabricated in "the advancing weeks."
Regardless of the election's outcome, Gibbs said, "We've got to make sure we're making advance with a accomplice in that government." He additionally said the next U.S. action affair on Afghanistan may be pushed back until early next anniversary because Gates and Vice President Joe Biden are traveling abroad.
Obama was widely accepted to adjudge on the next steps in Afghanistan afore he begins an extended cruise to Asia next month.
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Associated Press writers Andrew Miga, Steven Hurst, Lara Jakes and Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.
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