The Times
Jerome Starkey in Kabul

The embattled head of the UN mission in Afghanistan said yesterday that he would not seek a third year in office when his contract expired in March.

However, Kai Eide, who fell out with his American deputy, Peter Galbraith, over how to handle the rampant electoral fraud in August, insisted he was not resigning. “It’s a question of not renewing my contract,” he said.

The Times revealed last week that Mr Eide planned to quit soon after a bruising encounter with his deputy over how the United Nations should tackle more than a million fraudulent votes cast in the presidential polls. (Read more)