WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (AFP) - The United States and key allies in its war on terror united in praise for Afghanistan's elections Sunday, three years after leading the invasion which paved the way for the historic polls.
US President George W. Bush, keen to present the reconstruction of Afghanistan as a success story in his government's anti-terrorism drive, hailed the vote as a "really great thing."
"As we meet here this morning, a really great thing is happening in Afghanistan," said Bush said at a US presidential campaign rally.
"The people of that country, who just three years ago were suffering under the brutal regime of the Taliban, are going to the polls to vote for president," he said.
Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers were ousted from power in late 2001 following the invasion led by the United States in response to the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington.
Bush said it was symbolic that the first person to cast a vote in the Afghanistan election had been a woman.
Women were brutally repressed by the Taliban and treated as second-class citizens under the regime's harsh Islamic rule.
"Just three years ago, women were being executed in the sports stadium. Today they're voting for a leader of a free country," Bush said.
"A 19-year-old woman, an Afghan refugee who fled her homeland during its civil war, became the very first voter," the US president said. "...amazing, isn't it?. Freedom is beautiful."
The United States still has nearly 17,000 troops in Afghanistan who are engaged in hunting for terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden and members of his Al Qaeda network as well as remnants of the Taliban.
Britain, which also contributed troops to the invasion of Afghanistan, praised the election as "inspirational" saying the high voter turnout was a milestone after decades of conflict.
"Their enthusiasm and their determination to control their own democratic destiny is an inspiration to every one of us," said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
"With the Afghan people turning out in such huge numbers to elect their first-ever democratic head of state, it is already clear that a significant milestone has been reached in Afghanistan's history," Straw said.
Some 10.5 million people were registered to vote according to a UN count, and after polls closed Saturday a UN spokesman in Kabul described turnout as "massive".
Australian Prime Minister John Howard celebrated victory in his country's general election meanwhile by making a pointed reference to Afghanistan in a speech to party members.
Howard has been roundly vilified in Australia for lending government and military support to the US-led war in Iraq, but the newly elected leader told his countrymen that should feel proud of what had been achieved in Afghanistan.
"Let us remember that this very same day the people of Afghanistan have had an election," Howard told supporters.
"That election has been made possible by reason of the fact that a number of countries, including Australia, were prepared to take a stand for democracy and to take a stand against terrorism.
"And as the people of Afghanistan vote today, and particularly the women of Afghanistan who have been so brutally supressed for so long, we should be proud of the role that we played in the liberation."