Brown wants 'urgent' Afghan corruption effort

Gordon Brown has spoken to Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai to congratulate him on his re-election, even though a planned second round of voting never went ahead.

Election officials abandoned the re-run after his opponent Dr Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the race, arguing the vote would neither be free nor fair, after allegations of fraud in the first ballot.

The prime minister told MPs he had urged the president to set out a "unifying programme" for the country's future, and called for ''new and urgent'' anti-corruption measures in Afghanistan.