President Hamid Karzai has welcomed announcements by the two rival candidates in Afghanistan's presidential election that they will abide by the results of a U.N.-supervised recount of the poll to settle their dispute over the outcome, Reuters reported.
"I welcome those announcements and I hope that the 100 percent audit of the votes will take place and start as soon as possible," Karzai told a news conference in the early hours of Sunday after talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Kerry said Karzai was "willing to stay the course" until a delayed inauguration for his successor could be held.
The two leading contenders, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, are in dispute over the outcome of their election run-off on June 14.