Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies have pronounced the country's election a success, after voting passed off largely peacefully.

阿富汗总统Hamid Karzai和他的西方同盟在大部分投票工作安全进行之后，宣告国家选举取得胜利。

Mr Karzai hailed Afghans for braving Taliban "bombs and intimidations". His praise was echoed by the US and Nato.

There were some attacks by insurgents¹（叛乱分子）, but the UN says the vast majority of polling stations were able to function.

President Karzai is facing challenges from about 30 rivals. Official results are not expected for two weeks.

"The Afghan people dared rockets, bombs and intimidations," he told reporters as polls closed following a one-hour extension.

"We'll see what the turnout was. But they came out to vote. That's great."

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "Lots of people have defied（蔑视，挑衅） threats of violence and terror to express their thoughts about the next government for the people of Afghanistan."

Mr Karzai said that based on reports by the interior ministry², 73 attacks had taken place in 15 provinces.

Among the violent incidents reported:
Taliban militants⁴ stormed a town in Baghlan, northern Afghanistan, preventing polling stations from opening, police tell AFP news agency. At least eight died in ensuing（继而发生的） clashes with police
Taliban militants set fire to a bus on the Kandahar-Kabul highway in Ghazni, after offloading passengers and the driver, reportedly as punishment for violating a Taliban ban on using the road
Rockets hitting houses in Khost and Kandahar provinces killed two women and several children
More than 20 rockets landed in the capital of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold
In northern Baghlan province, a district police chief was killed when Taliban militants attacked a police post

Some 300,000 Afghan and Nato troops were on patrol to prevent attacks during the presidential and local polls.

Patchy turnout

Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Kabul said that overall, the security situation had been "better than we feared" and had "allowed people to take part in the elections".

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen hailed the vote as "a testimony⁵ to the determination of the Afghan people to build democracy".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, for his part, issued a statement congratulating "the women and men of Afghanistan on today's presidential and provincial⁶ council elections".

The polls are the first organised primarily by Afghans themselves.

Speaking on state TV, the director of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Loudin, claimed turnout had been "high".

Apart from the earlier gun battle in Kabul, the city was mainly reported to be quiet, with a brisk turnout in some polling stations while there was little activity in others.

Fewer people voted in the south and east, where militant³ influence is greater.

In Jalalabad, in the eastern province of Nangarhar, some districts reported no voters at all.

In the southern city of Kandahar - the historical stronghold of the Taliban - a voting official told AP news agency that turnout appeared to be 40% lower than during the 2004 election.

However in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the neighbouring Helmand province, many voters appeared to have taken part despite the bomb attacks.

The BBC's Martin Patience points out that three-quarters of Afghans live in the country's 30,000 rural villages - so it is turnout in the countryside which is key.

A voter in Kabul said she hoped the election would bring security to Afghanistan.

"We want the next president to stop the killing⁷ of innocent people and to find jobs for the people, and bring peace," she said.

But other would-be voters said they feared for their safety, while yet others said they had little faith in Afghan democracy.

"Unfortunately, democracy has been exported to Afghanistan, it hasn't grown up from the bottom to the top," said one.

There were widespread concerns about corruption⁸ in the run-up to the poll, with reports of voting cards being openly sold and of candidates offering large bribes⁹.