Afghan President Hamid Karzai leaves after a news conference in Kabul October 11, 2009. [Agencies]

Karzai announced his decision Tuesday moments after the government election commission accepted the findings of the auditors that the president fell short of a majority in the August ballot. The Karzai-influenced commission released preliminary results last month that showed the president winning with more than 54 percent out of a field of 36 candidates.

The president agreed to accept the findings after a day of intensive talks between Karzai and Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Kerry praised the Afghan leader for "genuine leadership in the decision he has made today." The two men met at least four times before the announcement.

Karzai supporters had complained of interference by foreigners, especially those on the UN-backed panel, which investigated and reported the fraud.

Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, noted that most of the rejected ballots were from his power base in the Pashtun-dominated south, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest. He said those votes were "disrespected" and should be investigated further.

In an interview later with The Associated Press, Kerry described the evolution in Karzai's thinking.

"President Karzai really deeply believes he had won the election and ... that the international community was kind of conspiring to push for a different outcome," Kerry said in a telephone interview from Dubai. "He had people within his government, people within the election commission who felt they were being insulted about putting together a faulty election process."

"There were a lot of very deep feelings about Afghanistan's right to run its election, its competency in running it and so forth," Kerry continued.