- Two foreigners named to fraud panel, given veto power
* U.N. "comfortable" with choice of commission chief
* Stand-off had led to diplomatic row with White House
By Hamid Shalizi
KABUL, April 17 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai named new officials on Saturday to oversee elections, drawing praise from the United Nations and effectively ending a standoff with the West over rules for an forthcoming parliamentary vote.
Karzai's quarrel with Western donors over the plans for the September vote had led to a diplomatic shouting match with Washington this month that brought relations between the war-time allies to a new low.
In Saturday's announcement, Karzai put a former judge and legal scholar in charge of the election commission, and also named an Iraqi and a South African to a separate election fraud panel, satisfying international pressure to include foreigners.
Donors had threatened to withhold funds to pay for the polls if reforms were not implemented to reduce the chance of a repeat of massive fraud in a presidential vote last year, while Karzai had tried to reduce foreign influence on the process.
"We hope that by appointing the head of the Independent Election Commission and members of the Electoral Complaints Commission, the international community will take a step forward in terms of holding the election and start giving their financial and technical support as soon as possible," Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer told a news conference.
The head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, said the announcements were part of a compromise reached to avert a stand-off between Karzai, donors and parliament, which were all pushing for competing rules.
"I want to congratulate President Karzai for his wise decision to agree to guidelines aimed at ensuring more credible and transparent elections," de Mistura said, adding he could now recommend Western countries release funds to pay for the vote.
Karzai's choice of former judge Fazel Ahmad Manawi to head the election commission was one "the international community and certainly the U.N. feels very comfortable with," he added.
The president's opponents had accused Manawi's predecessor of failing to stop last year's fraud. Karzai removed him last week.
KARZAI'S STANDING HURT BY VOTE FRAUD CLAIMS
Karzai's standing in the West was severely damaged by last year's presidential election, when the foreign-led fraud panel threw out nearly a third of his votes due to ballot stuffing.
The United Nations appointed three of the five members of the fraud panel last year. In a February decree, Karzai claimed the authority to appoint all the members, angering donors and members of parliament. He later negotiated a compromise with de Mistura under which two foreigners would be included.
Tension in those negotiations prompted Karzai to deliver a speech on April 1 in which he accused the West of perpetrating the fraud in last year's vote. The White House responded angrily to those remarks, calling them disturbing and untrue, but later made an effort to smooth over the relationship.
Although the two foreigners, Iraqi Mustafa Safwat Sediqi and South African Johann Kriegler, will no longer have a majority on the fraud panel, de Mistura said they would each have veto power over its decisions.
Western diplomats have said they agreed panel members should no longer come from countries with large military forces in Afghanistan, to avoid the impression of bias. The panel's head during last year's dispute came from Canada, which has 3,000 troops in Afghanistan. (Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Jon Hemming) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)