KABUL, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Saturday, the Tolo TV station said.
The visit was part of a series of talks between leading political figures and Afghan President Hamid Karzai ahead of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission's report on its probe into widespread allegations of fraud at the August 20 presidential polls.
According to preliminary figures, Karzai won 54.6% of the vote, which would be enough to give him a first-round victory. However, were some 250,000 votes to be discounted, he would face a second-round run-off against former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
U.S. Senator John Kerry, chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has also paid a visit to Afghanistan to discuss the situation.
Karzai's office said that the Afghan leader had also held phone conversations with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Three U.S. soldiers were killed in roadside bombs in Afghanistan on Friday, bringing the total of U.S. deaths to 247 in the war-ravaged state this year.
