Date set for landmark Afghan vote

President Karzai - facing the first test of his popularity

Presidential elections are to be held in Afghanistan on 9 October, the chief election commissioner has announced.

The vote was originally scheduled for June, but has been rescheduled twice because of security fears and slow voter registration.

It will be the first popular vote since the fall of the Taleban, and a key test for US-backed President Hamid Karzai.

Parliamentary elections are to be held separately next April or May, according to the latest timetable.

The Taleban have vowed to disrupt the process and have been staging attacks on election workers.

Correspondents say Mr Karzai - still officially only an interim president - will be the favourite to win the presidential poll. But 13 men and one woman have already said they intend to challenge him.

Appeal for security

"The Joint Electoral Management Body has decided that the presidential elections will take place on October 9, 2004, and the parliamentary elections in spring 2005," election commissioner Zakim Shah said on state television.

Q&A: Democracy in Afghanistan

Mr Shah highlighted the biggest problem facing the country when he urged the international community "to create a more secure atmosphere for the candidates and the voters."

The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says that even holding a presidential poll will be a major challenge.

The election announcement comes against a background of rising insecurity in the country.

Last year, the Taleban vowed to regain power. They regard Mr Karzai as a puppet of the United States.

US-led forces, concentrated in the south and east of the country, have admitted coming under increasingly frequent attack.

There have also been a number of fatal assaults on election workers and aid agency staff blamed on the Taleban and their supporters.

A programme to disarm Afghanistan's many warlords is running behind schedule.

And there have been delays in the voter registration programme.

So far, six million out of 10 million potential voters have been registered.

Troop pledges

Nato currently has some 6,500 troops engaged in peace-keeping duties in the north and west of the country.

It recently said it would provide more troops for the elections. But many Afghans argue that the Nato troops are based only in the relatively safe parts of the country.

The United States leads a force of more than 20,000 men engaged in offensive operations against the Taleban and their allies.

Mr Karzai was sworn in as president in December, 2001, after being selected to head an interim government at a UN-sponsored meeting of Afghans in the German city of Bonn.

Critics argue that his real power is limited to Kabul and surrounding areas.