国际英语新闻:Afghan president meets presidential aspirants, discusses new gov't

KABUL, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday met with the two presidential candidates Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and discussed the formation of a national unity government, said a statement issued by Presidential Palace.

"(The) presidential candidates expressed their willingness to soon sign an agreement in the presence of president (Karzai) and other national figures," the statement added.

Afghanistan's presidential election was held on April 5 this year, and since none of the eight contenders succeeded to secure more than 50 percent of the votes, the two front-runners Abdullah and Ghani went for a run-off on June 14.

Abdullah, who bagged majority of the votes in the first round of the elections and stood second in the runoff, had accused the election commission of committing fraud in favor of Ghani and demanded votes audit.

To solve the election deadlock, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Kabul twice in July and August and held meetings with the two hopefuls. Kerry was able to broker a deal between them under which the winner would become president and the loser chief executive, a post equal to that of prime minister in a proposed national unity government.

Abdullah's team for the unity talks wants the chief executive to be the head of cabinet while the opposing team argued that such an arrangement would violate the Afghan constitution.

The outgoing president Karzai once again called on the candidates to reach an agreement on their own, and speed up their efforts to reach a conclusion as soon as possible, according to the statement.