Washington (AP) The White House says President Barack Obama is planning to call Afghan President Hamid Karzai about his victory in the fraud-marred election.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs also says that Americans should "take heart" that the laws and institutions of Afghanistan have prevailed.

Gibbs says that there was no reason to believe the Afghan people would not accept a Karzai government as legitimate, even though challenger Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's former foreign minister, dropped out of a planned run-off vote on Saturday.

Karzai's administration has been under heavy U.S. pressure to eliminate corruption and to widen its support among the country's key ethnic groups.

Gibbs says "the hard conversations about ensuring credibility," improving governance and addressing corruption will now begin, adding that the administration is focused on "what has to happen in order to have a credible partner." The election has coincided with a prolonged study by Obama to decide on a new Afghan strategy, including a request by his top commander for as many as 80,000 additional forces to battle the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies.

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