Afghanistan’s landmark elections are to be held in September, three months later than originally scheduled.
The announcement was made earlier by the interim leader, Hamid Karzai.
Under the Bonn peace accords, drawn up in late 2001 following the fall of the Taliban regime, Afghanistan was due to hold democratic elections in June.
Mr Karzai acknowledged that Afghanistan had experienced serious factional fighting in the past week. However, he said electoral officials had assured him that progress was being made in organising the polls.
