Kabul - With only a few days to the announcement of the much-awaited official results of the Afghan presidential elections, Abdullah Abdullah, the incumbent's top challenger, denied Thursday that he was to make any deal for forming a coalition government but said he was open to discussions after the final results were known.

The results, which had been slated to be known by mid-September, have been delayed by a UN-backed Election Complaint Commission, which is looking into widespread allegations of fraud. Abdullah, a former foreign minister, denied reports that his team was working on a deal to form a coalition government, saying the core of his agenda was to change the system of government.

"There isn't a possibility of talks of a coalition government," Abdullah told a press conference in his home in Kabul, adding, "The core of our political agenda has been to change the system into a parliamentary [one] and [with] elected governors. These changes cannot be achieved by having a few posts in the cabinet." It was eight weeks Thursday since the August 20 elections, in which millions of Afghans went to polling centres to elect their president for the second time in Afghanistan's history.

President Hamid Karzai won the re-election with 54 per cent of the vote in preliminary results, but the outcome could change if the ECC, which is auditing a sample of suspicious ballots, throws out enough fraudulent votes and Karzai's share falls below 50 per cent.

In order to avoid a second round of balloting, which would be challenging because of the onset of winter and Taliban threats, Western countries who funded the August election are said to be nudging Karzai to form a coalition government with Abdullah.

Abdullah, who accused Karzai several times of engineering the fraud, however, said he was open to discussions after the final results were released, which he hoped would happen this weekend.

"I will be open to discussions post-announcement but nothing could be discussed at this stage," he said.

Election officials said Thursday that final results were expected this weekend as the ECC was prepared to submit its results of sample audits to the Independent Election Commission, who conducted the elections, by Saturday.

Abdullah said his team members, who observed the sample recount, were sure that the elections would go to a run-off. (dpa)