The FINANCIAL -- KABUL, Afghanistan accused on November 7 the top UN official in the war-ravaged country of interference in its internal affairs.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry said that UN general secretary representative Kai Eide had made comments that "went beyond both international norms and his authority as a representative of an impartial organization."

Norwegian diplomat Eide said on November 5 that Afghanistan government could not count on the support of international donors if it did nothing to root out corruption and put a stop to the influence of warlords

The Foreign Ministry statement also hit out at foreign media and international organizations.

"Over the last few days some political and diplomatic circles and propaganda agencies of certain foreign countries have intervened in Afghanistan's internal affairs by issuing instructions on the composition of Afghan governmental organs and the political policy of Afghanistan," the statement read.

The statement came after shortly after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election when officials scrapped the second round of voting following the withdrawal of his opponent.

Abdullah Abdullah was Karzai's only challenger in the November 7 runoff, but the former Afghan foreign minister announced that he would not take part in the second round due to the president's refusal to dismiss the nation's top election official and take other action to prevent fraud.

The runoff was scheduled after Karzai, who was officially given 54.6% of the first-round vote, bowed to international pressure and accepted the findings of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, which said the election was tainted by wide-scale fraud and no candidate had received over 50% of the vote, the threshold for automatic victory.

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