Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his successor will take office on September 2, despite a slow-moving audit to eliminate fraudulent ballots cast for the two contenders.
"The Afghan government is totally ready for the inauguration ceremony of the new president on the date of September 2," the presidential palace said in a statement.
The date will not change, according to the statement, which was issued following talks between Karzai and the head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Jan Kubis.
The new president was due to be inaugurated on August 2, in Afghanistan's first democratic transfer of power, but the government has been paralysed for months after the first round of voting failed to produce a clear winner and the second round in June triggered allegations of fraud.
As fears grew of a return to civil war, the United States last month brokered an emergency deal designed to end the impasse between poll rivals Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank economist, and former anti-Taliban fighter Abdullah Abdullah.
But neither candidate appears willing to back down, and the dispute looks set to flare again in coming days when early results emerge from the anti-fraud audit of all eight million votes.
The audit has checked more than 60 per cent of votes, and the next stage of invalidating fraudulent ballots is likely to raise tensions between the candidates, who are meant to be in talks about a post-election unity government.
The US had been pushing for the next president to be inaugurated before a NATO summit starting on September 4, which is intended to sign off on follow-up support.
The political crisis will worsen if either candidate pulls out of the audit or rejects its outcome, and any protests will pose a challenge to national security forces.
Many of Ghani's supporters are Pashtuns from the south and east, while Abdullah's loyalists are Tajiks and other northern groups.
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