GHAZNI, Afghanistan (AFP) - A fleet of helicopters escorted by fighter jets flew Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai to his first campaign rally outside Kabul as the war-shattered country counted down to elections.
His main rival for the presidency in Saturday's vote, Yunus Qanooni, meanwhile addressed more than 2,000 in a Kabul football stadium notorious as an execution ground under the former Islamic Taliban regime.
Karzai, whose first attempt to campaign beyond the capital was aborted after a rocket attack on his helicopter last month, received an enthusiastic welcome from a crowd of about 10,000 people in Ghazni, about 100 kilometres (63 miles) south of the capital.
Security was tight for the US-backed candidate, with American bodyguards beefed up by truckloads of soldiers on the streets, roads blocked and heavy searches of everyone entering the gardens.
The crowd, carrying posters with Karzai's picture and banners reading "Karzai is the symbol of unity", chanted Allahu Akbar (God is great) and "Long live Karzai", against a background of traditional drumming.
At one stage Karzai stepped down from the podium to shake hands with the audience, which included hundreds of women, but was swiftly urged back by his bodyguards.
Supporters of the Taliban regime ousted by the US-led invasion in late 2001, who have been waging an insurgency in the south, have pledged to kill presidential candidates and disrupt the vote.
Karzai told the crowd, which local officials said numbered 50,000: "When I see this number of people, in their thousands, I'm delighted and I'm sure that I will win."
Karzai said he was happy to see pictures of other candidates as well his own while on the way to the meeting, adding: "I urge you, whoever among the candidates gets elected you should support him.
"I want your free votes. If someone comes with money or if a government official puts pressure on you to vote for me you should remember that this is going to be a free and secret ballot. You should not vote under pressure.
"Your vote does not only elect your president but it lays the foundation of a peaceful, stable, prosperous Afghanistan."
Karzai outlined his vision of a new Afghanistan, saying change had already begun.
"Today's Afghanistan is not yesterday's Afghanistan. Today the rule of the gun has been limited and people can elect their president by their own will."
He said he hoped a future Afghanistan would stand on its own feet, run on its own money, train its own army and police, build its own roads and have a good health service with water and electricity for all.
"The income per capita in Afghanistan today is around 200 dollars and I hope that by the end of five years it will go up to 500," he said.
In Kabul, prominent anti-Taliban fighter Qanooni received an equally enthusiastic response from some 2,000 supporters carrying posters with his picture and banners reading "Vote for Qanooni and establish peace".
Qanooni told them: "Saturday will be a milestone in the history of Afghanistan and Afghans for the first time will choose their leader. It marks the transition from dictatorship to democracy and elected government.
"If you want an Islamic republic, if you want the rule of law, if you want national unity, if you want peace and stability, vote for me."
Karzai, who is widely tipped to win later returned safely to the capital, his spokesman said. He is due to address a rally at the same venue Wednesday, the final day of official campaigning ahead of the October 9 vote.
Seventeen other candidates are standing for election, but Qanooni, 47, a former education minister, is seen as Karzai's main competition.
With tension mounting ahead of the vote, nearly 60,000 Afghan police and soldiers backed by 27,000 international troops were moving into position at 5,000 polling stations in anticipation of attacks by insurgents.