U.N. says Afghan envoys differ in style, not substance

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations admitted on Tuesday to a difference of opinion between its two top officials in Afghanistan over the country's election but denied the more junior, an American, had been fired.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief said the deputy special envoy, former U.S. diplomat Peter Galbraith, had temporarily left Afghanistan, but would return and remained part of the U.N. mission, known as UNAMA.

Britain's Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that Galbraith had been ordered out of Afghanistan after a row with his boss, Norwegian Kai Eide, over last month's presidential poll, in which the opposition has alleged widespread fraud.

The report said Galbraith wanted annulment and a recount of results from far more polling stations than Eide. Galbraith's proposal would virtually ensure a second round while Eide's would probably enable incumbent President Hamid Karzai to claim victory on the first round results, the Times said.

"Mr. Galbraith is a full member of the UNAMA mission and he has not quit the mission as I heard here and there, and he was not fired, not at all," U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy told a news conference in New York.

But he added: "What is sure also is that there has been clearly a difference of opinion between the two, mostly about questions of style or personalities, and not on what to do concerning the situation, but how to do it."

Le Roy gave no further details of the dispute.

U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Galbraith was currently on a "mission" and would join Eide at the United Nations later this month in New York. The Security Council is due to be briefed on September 29 on the situation in Afghanistan.

After that meeting Galbraith will return to his post in Afghanistan, Le Roy said.

The head of a U.N.-backed electoral complaints commission said on Tuesday a partial recount of the first-round results would cover more than 10 percent of Afghanistan's 24,000-plus polling stations.

The recount means that enough votes are likely to be subjected to the fraud investigation to potentially alter the outcome, prolonging uncertainty over the result for weeks or even months. According to near-complete preliminary results issued so far, Karzai won a majority of 54.3 percent.

Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, has been seen as close to Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Media reports at the time of Galbraith's appointment to the U.N. post in March suggested it reflected U.S. dissatisfaction with Eide. The United Nations denied the reports and said the two men had been "friends for years."

(Editing by Todd Eastham)