Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rejected a call by rival presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah to sack the head of the Afghan election commission.

阿富汗总统Hamid Karzai拒绝了其总统候选人对手Abdullah解雇选举委员会首领的提议。

Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah have ruled out a power-sharing deal

Mr Abdullah made his demand ahead of a 7 November run-off, after a UN-backed panel threw out first-round votes.

He said commission chief Azizullah Lodin had "no credibility", but Mr Karzai said he had done nothing wrong.

The row came as US President Barack Obama pledged not to "rush" a decision about whether to send extra US troops.

Mr Obama held a sixth meeting with his national security team on Monday to discuss the future US strategy in Afghanistan.

He then spoke¹ at a military base in Florida, telling troops he would "never hesitate" to use force if necessary.

But, he added: "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way."

'Legal duties'

In Afghanistan the incumbent² president dismissed Mr Abdullah's allegations, saying that sudden upheaval³（隆起，大变动） could upset the voting process.

"The changes would not be helpful to the elections and the country," Hamid Karzai said.

Mr Abdullah and his aides insist the IEC is dominated by officials loyal to Mr Karzai, and the challenger has called for some to be removed from their posts.

However, Mr Karzai, who appointed the commissioners⁵, said they "have just done their legal duties".

There has been no statement from the IEC or Mr Lodin as yet.

Earlier, Mr Abdullah and Hamid Karzai earlier ruled out a power-sharing deal.

Both candidates told US media they were committed to another poll.

Speaking to CNN, Mr Karzai - who bowed to international pressure to hold a run-off - said a deal would be "an insult to democracy".

List of conditions

Mr Abdullah made his demand for Mr Lodin's dismissal（免职，解雇） during a news conference at which he outlined a list of conditions for a fair second round.

"He has left no credibility（确实性，可靠） for the institution," Mr Abdullah was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

"What's the solution? Another commissioner⁴ from the same commission should take his position," he said.

After the 20 August poll, initial results suggested that Mr Karzai had received 55% of the vote, and former foreign minister Mr Abdullah 28%.

But the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) deducted⁶ hundreds of thousands of votes from the main candidates.

Its investigation⁷ focused on 600 of the most serious complaints, and a sample audit⁸（查账，审计） of suspect votes at 3,377 polling stations. At 210 polling stations all the ballots⁹ were invalidated（使无效）.

This meant Mr Karzai's total was reduced to below the 50% plus one vote threshold（极限，门槛） for outright¹⁰ victory, indicating a second round was needed.

The panel also recommended replacing thousands of officials and scrapping¹¹（报废） polling stations where the fraud was worst.

Officials involved in flawed polling are being removed ahead of the run-off, the UN has said.

But there are still concerns about the ability of the run-off to avoid mistakes made in the first round, correspondents say.

Campaigning officially began over the weekend but the Taliban threatened to launch a fresh wave of violence and urged people not to vote in what they called an "American process".