Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced on Monday that he intended to run for re-election in the country's presidential polls slated in August 20. Karzai, who has led Afghanistan for more than seven years since the ouster of the Islamist extremist Taliban regime in late 2001, had hinted his intention for re-election in the past, but had said that he would do so if the Afghan people asked him.

"In a few days, I will go along with my vice presidents to register for the post of next Afghanistan's president," Karzai said in a joint press conference with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Kabul.

Karzai, who was elected in Afghanistan's first presidential election in the country's history in 2004 from a pool of 18 candidates, said the vote was "another step towards strengthening of democracy in Afghanistan." (dpa)