Where do we start? Afghan unity talks at early impasse

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By Hamid Shalizi and Jeremy Laurence KABUL (Reuters) - The two men vying to become Afghanistan's next leader may have shaken hands on a deal to resolve a bitterly disputed election, but they are miles apart on a critical component of their gentleman's agreement - forming a united government. Four months after Afghans first went to the polls to choose President Hamid Karzai's successor, the final result could still be weeks, possibly months away, as hundreds of international monitors painstakingly audit the ballot - one vote at a time - to vet for fraud. More worryingly, the two protagonists, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, have not yet started work on the most difficult part of a pact brokered by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry amid some fanfare: how they will share power. "Ashraf Ghani is smart and not ready to sign these details now ... because his camp believe they are winning, and why concede a huge amount of power to his rival?" a senior Afghan government official told Reuters.




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