Afghan vote count still on hold

A breakthrough agreement on Saturday's disputed ballot was reached Monday when Yunus Qanooni, who has the support of the powerful Northern Alliance and is the main rival to US-backed interim President Hamid Karzai, said he would accept the election result after the inquiry.

Several other candidates among a group of 14 who declared in the middle of voting that they would boycott the results have adopted a similar stance.

The dispute tainted an otherwise jubilant day as millions of Afghan men and women flocked to polling stations for their first-ever say in choosing their country's leader, defying threats of violence by the Taliban militia who were ousted three years ago.

The joint UN-Afghan electoral commission announced Monday the UN would set up an independent panel to investigate the charges of irregularities.

The panel will include a former Canadian diplomat and a Swedish electoral expert, and a third member yet to be identified, election commission vice-chairman Ray Kennedy said.

Vote counting meanwhile had been put on hold in case there was any need to deal with a specific ballot box, Kennedy said.

Qanooni is also pushing for some polling stations to be reopened. He has charged that in areas where he has wide support the stations opened late and closed early.