The crisis surrounding Afghanistan's historic presidential election appeared to end on Monday as President Hamid Karzai's chief rival said he and other candidates were withdrawing their rejection of the weekend poll.
Millions of Afghans took part in Saturday's poll, the first time the impoverished, war-torn Islamic nation voted for a president, but all 15 of Karzai's challengers announced a boycott, saying a system to prevent multiple voting had failed.
"We want unity in this election, not a boycott," ethnic Tajik commander Yunus Qanuni told reporters after intermediaries, including US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, interceded in the row.
"The people want it and we appreciate their feelings."
Qanuni said he was speaking for several candidates but not all. But his acquiescence means the end of the most serious opposition to the poll, which was held under the shadow of threats of violence by Taleban insurgents.
US-backed Karzai, favourite to win the election, had appealed to his rivals to respect what he called "national jubilation" over the vote.
The election commission, the Joint Election Management Body (JEMB), had earlier announced the setting up of a panel to investigate irregularities and called on Karzai's rivals to submit complaints by Tuesday evening.
"The JEMB has decided to request the UN to identify an impartial panel of international electoral experts to fully investigate these protests and present recommendations to the JEMB for its adjudication," it said in a statement.
One JEMB official, J. Ray Kennedy, said the vote count would be delayed until it was known how to handle suspect ballots. Other officials had earlier said counting would start on Monday.
"We are hoping all this will be in place by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday)," Kennedy told Reuters.
Khalilzad and others had persuaded powerful candidates to drop their refusal to recognise the result, Western diplomats and candidates said.
"Qanuni and Mohaqiq have shown willingness to drop the boycott demand after meetings with Khalilzad," said one candidate, referring to Hazara chieftain Mohammad Mohaqiq.
"Khalilzad urged them to do so in return for accommodating them somehow in the future government."
US President George W. Bush, facing his own election battle next month, has claimed the Afghan vote as a foreign policy success and is hoping it can be mirrored in war-torn Iraq.
"BREATHTAKING" Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking in Macedonia, said the media had played up the negatives of the poll. "The fact is they just had an election. It's breathtaking!" he said.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, visiting Afghanistan on Monday, said: "I want to praise all of the authorities, particularly the German contingent, for making the Afghan elections so peaceful."
When reporters asked Schroeder if it was proper to be visiting when there was still a row over the election, Karzai was quick to offer his opinion.
"The government functions," he said. "The president of the interim government is president until after the results of the election."
A full vote count was likely to take about three weeks because of the difficulties in bringing ballot boxes to counting centres. In the rugged Hindu Kush mountains, the ballots will be brought down by donkey.
Fears of multiple voting had been stoked by the late issue of a high number of voter cards - 10.5 million in a population of about 28 million, only about half of them adults.
Karzai and 17 other candidates were on the ballot but two withdrew in favour of the president. The winner needs 51 percent of the vote, otherwise a runoff between the top two candidates will be held in November.