By Syed Saleem Shahzad -

November 09, 2009 -- Islamabad, 6 Nov. (AKI) - The United States put pressure on Afghan president Hamid Karzai's rival, Abdullah Abdullah, to withdraw from the country's presidential race and hand victory to Karzai, sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Sources said the American pressure was part of a deal struck last week with the Pakistani military, which in exchange agreed to establish direct contact with the Taliban and obtain peace with Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan.

The deal was said to have been negotiated during US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's visit to Pakistan last week, when she met army chief of staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the head of Pakistan's military intelligence Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha.

As part of the deal, the US ended negotiations with Abdullah which included offering him the position of chief executive officer of Afghanistan.

Instead the US swung its full support behind Karzai, said an unnamed senior Pakistani diplomat involved in Af-Pak-US negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sources told AKI the deal would make a major contribution to reconciliation between the warring factions of the Pakistani Taliban and the Pakistan armed forces and help end a bloody two-year insurgency in the country in which hundreds have died.

The deal also highlighted the key role played by the Pakistani armed forces in regional politics, according to sources.

Clinton played a major role behind the Indian decision to withdraw its forces along the Pakistan-India border near the disputed territory of Kashmir, allowing Pakistan's army to step up its fight against Al-Qaeda in the Pakistani tribal areas in coming months, sources told AKI.

The administration of US president Barack Obama fears that failure to combat extremism in Pakistan will have a dominoe effect on the whole region and lead to certain defeat of American interests in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Last month, the US Congress approved a 1.5 billion dollar annual aid package to Pakistan for the next five years as part of a joint commitment to fight terrorism in the region.

The Pakistani military was opposed to Abdullah arguing that his participation in a new Afghan government would have been detrimental to dialogue with the Taliban. It also considered Abdullah as pro-India.

Abdullah said his withdrawal from the Afghan presidential run-off on Monday was in protest at the failure of key poll officials to resign.

He claimed he did not believe there would be a fair ballot after the first round of voting was overshadowed by mass electoral fraud.