The Prime Minister has spoken to President Karzai to congratulate him on his re-election as president of Afghanistan.

Speaking about the Afghan elections process on the Today programme on 9 September 2009, British Ambassador to Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said, 'it has been a long process but there’s still quite a long way to go'.

The Prime Minister said he was confident that Afghanistan’s leaders would support the remaining steps of the democratic process, following the decision by Abdullah Abdullah to pull out of the election run-off.

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has welcomed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's promise to hold a second ballot in the presidential election.

The Times published a story on 29 September entitled 'US accepts Hamid Karzai as Afghan leader despite poll fraud claims'. This is not our position. As we've said all along, it's for the Afghans to choose their next leader. We support the process, not any one candidate.