They said they would boycott the results and demanded a new election, saying ink used on voters hands to prevent repeat voting could be washed off.

But observers monitoring the first election since a U.S.-backed coalition ousted the hardline Taliban regime in 2002, rejected calls for a new poll on Sunday.

They said there was no reason to nullify the results in the nation's first vote to directly elect their president.

At least two of the candidates had backed away from the boycott by Monday, the Associated Press reported.

"I'm in the middle position. I'm not too unhappy about the voting, but not as happy as Mr. Karzai is. I don't know what cheating went on," said opposition candidate Haji Mohammed Mohaqeq.

Some observers said the complaints over the ink were being raised by candidates as an excuse for why they were likely to lose.

The man favored to win called on candidates to respect the wishes of the Afghan people, who endured bad weather in places and long lines to vote.

"We should respect the result, whatever that may be, and allow time for the joint commission to study whatever irregularities that there were," Karzai said.

'Could be mistakes'

Afghan law allows candidates to present any evidence of fraud.

Poll organizers said Sunday they would form an independent commission of about three foreign election experts to investigate the weekend balloting.

"There is going to be an independent commission made to investigate it," AP quoted electoral director Farooq Wardak as saying.

"There could be mistakes; we are just human beings. My colleagues might have made a mistake."

In addition to the ink controversy, monitors saw campaign or election officials coaching people on how to vote.

Ballot boxes are arriving at counting centers across the country in a slow process that could take days, since some boxes are carried by mules and votes are counted by hand.

Final results are not due for weeks.

Braved threats

Millions of Afghan voters -- including veiled women -- braved threats of Taliban violence to cram polling stations throughout the ethnically diverse nation and observers talked of excitement in the air.

Proud to cast their first vote, men and women waited patiently in line for hours.

Officials said turnout looked extremely high. Around 10.5 million Afghans had registered to vote, around 41 percent of them women.

The voting went off without major bloodshed threatened by Taliban militants, a move welcomed by international and national authorities.

"We feared lots of attacks, lots of sabotage, lots of terrorist activities," Karzai said.

"We are very happy that this went on peacefully, we are very happy that the Afghan people came to participate so massively."

While the rebels carried out a smattering of deadly assaults, they took the biggest hit, losing 25 men in a clash with U.S. and Afghan forces in the south of the country, AP reported.

In Washington U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice praised the elections and the Afghan people, telling reporters Sunday the irregularities were minor and the nation's election law would take care of the problems.

"The Afghan people behaved wonderfully," she said. "It was peaceful for the large part. The terrorists did not succeed in disrupting the election."

"Technical problems arise ... even in the most mature countries in the world," she added.

The international community is keen the election be widely accepted as legitimate.

Western donors pumped aid into Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban and the United Nations has been closely involved in the election, which many believe will endorse the U.S.-backed interim government.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour and Peter Bergen contributed to this report.

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/10/11/afghanistan.elections/index.html