LONDON (AP) — The West braced Friday for a vote by the Crimean Peninsula to secede from Ukraine — and likely be annexed by Russia — as the last attempt for diplomacy broke down despite threats of costly international sanctions and other imminent penalties against Moscow for forcibly challenging a pro-European government in Kiev.

Russia's top diplomat said Moscow will make no decisions about Crimea's future, including whether to embrace it as a new territory, until after a local referendum Sunday to decide whether it should remain part of Ukraine.

But U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the vote's results are all but a foregone conclusion, and urged Russia's parliament against accepting any offer to claim Crimea as its own.

"We believe that a decision to move forward by Russia to ratify that vote officially within the Duma would, in fact, be a backdoor annexation of Crimea," Kerry told reporters in London after six hours of talks Friday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Kerry instead called on Moscow to support broad autonomy for Crimea — still as part of Ukraine — instead of a move by the strategic peninsula to secede. And he predicted the probability of "if the people of Crimea vote overwhelmingly, as one suspects they will, to affiliate or be associated with Russia."

Crimea, which is Ukraine's strategic Black Sea peninsula of 2 million people, has a majority ethnic Russian population and hosts a large Russian naval base. The West and Ukraine's upstart government in Kiev believes the region's vote to secede is unconstitutional. But Moscow doesn't recognize leaders in Kiev as legitimate since they pushed Ukraine's pro-Russian president from power last month.

Lavrov, speaking separately to reporters, said Russia would respect the results of the Crimea vote but would not predict what would happen next.

"We lack a common vision of the situation, and differences remain," Lavrov said of his Ukraine negotiations with Kerry before heading back to Russia.

However, he said Moscow has no plans to invade southeast regions in Ukraine. Thousands of Russian troops amassed on Ukraine's eastern border this week, including large artillery exercises involving 8,500 soldiers in the Rostov region alone.

U.S. officials have derided the exercises as an intimidation tactic and noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a similar buildup of troops in and around Crimea immediately before pro-Russian forces in the region overtook the local government and began policing streets with militias.

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Armed men, believed to be Russian servicemen, walk outside a Ukrainian military base in Perevalnoye, …

The diplomatic stalemate marked a disappointing and last-ditch effort by the West to avoid a new diplomatic chill from growing between Putin and Europe and the U.S. The showdown has been cast as a struggle for the future of Ukraine, a country with a size and population similar to France.

Much of western Ukraine favors ties with the 28-nation European Union, while many in the eastern part of the country have closer economic and traditional ties to Russia. Putin has worked for months to press Ukraine back into Russia's political and economic orbit.

The West has resisted threatening the use of military force to keep Putin in check. Instead, officials have warned Moscow it will face a series of harsh sanctions against Russian officials and businesses, as well as others in Ukraine, who undermined the new government in Kiev that took over after deadly protests demanding economic opportunities offered in the West.

The EU and U.S. will impose sanctions as early as Monday.

"If the referendum takes place, there will be some sanctions," Kerry said. "There'll be some response."

British Prime Minister David Cameron echoed the sanctions threat.

"We want to see Ukrainians and the Russians talking to each other," Cameron told Kerry in a separate meeting Friday in London. "And if they don't, then there are going to have to be consequences."

But Lavrov issued his own warning that sanctions could further entrench Russia.

"Our partners also realize that sanctions are counterproductive," he said.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and US Secretary of State John Kerry stand together pr …

U.S. Sen. John McCain, in Kiev on Friday, pledged to help send an array of armaments, ranging from combat infantry rifles to anti-tank weapons, to Ukraine as quickly as possible. Ukraine's military is largely poorly trained, but McCain pointed to the looming Russian troops as enough reason to help the country defend itself.

"Would you like them to throw rocks?" said McCain, a hawkish Republican from Arizona. "If that's what they're literally begging for, why should we judge whether we give it to them or not?"

Ukraine's best hope now is for Crimea to declare autonomy but remain a part of the country.

Officials said Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is willing to give Crimea nearly unparalleled latitude in governing itself, while working to resolve concerns with Kiev over taxes and language differences. Officials in Kiev and the West also may have to settle for Crimea becoming a quasi-independent state like Trans-Dniester, a breakaway state from Moldova with strong Russian loyalties.

In Kiev, authorities made a last attempt to prevent Crimea from seceding. Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov annulled a recent Crimean parliamentary vote to immediately become an independent state were the region to break off from Ukraine.

Heightening the tensions, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement claiming it reserves the right to intervene in eastern Ukraine in defense of ethnic Russians who it claims are under threat.

The ministry said clashes overnight Thursday in the eastern city of Donetsk showed that Ukrainian authorities had lost control of the country and couldn't provide basic security. The clashes broke out, however, when a hostile pro-Russian crowd confronted pro-government supporters. At least one person died and 29 were injured.

Ukraine responded by calling the Russian statement "impressive in its cynicism."

The Donetsk clashes had "a direct connection to deliberate, destructive actions of certain citizens of Russia and some Russian social organizations, representatives of which are present in our country to destabilize the situation and escalate tensions," Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Evgeny Perebiynis said, according to the Interfax news agency.

The U.N. assistant secretary-general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, told reporters Friday in Kiev there was "no sign of human rights violations of such a proportion, of such widespread intensity that would require any military measures."

The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert Friday, advising Americans in Russia about "the ongoing tensions in Ukraine and the potential for increased public demonstrations and anti-American actions in Russia in connection with Russian actions in the Crimea." The alert also said Americans planning to travel to border regions with Ukraine "should be aware of the potential for escalation of tensions, military clashes (either accidental or intentional), or other violence, and the potential for threats to safety and security."

At his news conference, Kerry plaintively said room for negotiations still exists — but only if Russia respects Ukraine's borders and sovereignty, and doesn't wrest away Crimea. He said any attempts by Moscow to do otherwise would be "a decision of enormous consequence with respect to the global community."

"It would be against international law and, frankly, fly in the face of every legitimate effort to try to reach out to Russia and others to say there is a different way to protect the interests of Crimeans, to protect Russia's interests and to respect the integrity of Ukraine and the sovereignty of Ukraine," Kerry said.

Lavrov flatly rejected any blame.

"The crisis," he said, "was not caused by Russia."

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Peter Leonard and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, and Maria Danilova and Jim Heinz in Kiev contributed to this report.

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Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and Cassandra Vinograd at https://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Two killed in Ukraine as Crimea prepares breakaway vote

Kharkiv (Ukraine) (AFP) - Ukraine braced on Saturday for a breakaway vote in Crimea as deadly violence flared again in the ex-Soviet country's tinderbox east amid the biggest East-West showdown since the Cold War.

The second successive day of deadly unrest that has now claimed three lives in the mainly Russian-speaking east of the country came hours after Moscow, whose forces have seized control of Crimea, warned that it reserved the right to "protect" compatriots in the whole of Ukraine.

US Secretary of State John Kerry had on Friday failed to either avert Sunday's Crimea ballot or win Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's assurance that Moscow may delay annexing the Black Sea region that Ukraine only received as a "gift" from Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954.

The rugged Black Sea peninsula -- home to two million mostly Russian speakers and the base of tsarist and Kremlin navies since the 18th century -- is widely expected to vote in favour of joining Russia after its lawmakers declared independence from Kiev earlier this month.

The referendum comes weeks after a pro-Kremlin regime was toppled in Kiev after months of deadly protests and replaced with Western-leaning leadership, which has denounced Sunday's vote as illegal.

But Moscow, whose troops seized control of Crimea in the days after Ukraine's president was ousted, strongly backs the referendum despite international condemnation and a new round of painful sanctions against top Russian officials that Washington and EU nations are expected to unveil as early as Monday.

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People hold a Soviet flag as they take part in a pro-Russian rally in the Black Sea Ukrainian city o …

- Deadly violence erupts again in east -

The latest deadly violence flared on Friday evening in Kharkiv when a group of nationalists opened fire on pro-Russian supporters in the heart of the eastern industrial city of 1.4 million.

No one was hurt but police said the pro-Russians then chased the gunmen to the headquarters of a far-right group called Patrioty Ukrainy (Ukrainian Patriots) -- an offshoot of the Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) organisation that was at the heart of the Kiev anti-government protests.

Police said a pro-Russian protester and a passerby were killed when the nationalists holed up inside the building opened fire. Six others were hurt -- including one officer -- when police arrived at the scene.

The group of about 30 gunmen eventually gave up their arms and handed themselves over to the police.

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Factfile and map of Crimea explaining why it is coveted by both Moscow and Kiev (AFP Photo/S. Ramis …

The Russian foreign ministry's human rights pointman Konstantin Dolgov urged Kiev in a tweet to immediately ban all organisations "inciting inter-ethnic hatred".

The Kharkiv clashes came one day after a 22-year-old man was killed in another eastern city of Donetsk when 2,000 pro-Russian supporters attacked a smaller group rallying on the same square in the defence of Ukraine's sovereignty.

Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchynov blamed the Donetsk death on thugs "sent in" from Russia.

- 'No common vision' -

The worst standoff in East-West relations since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall found no solution when Kerry and Lavrov locked horns in six-hour talks in London that ended in a handshake and an agreement that the two sides still remained far apart.

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A man holds balloons in the colors of the Ukrainian national flag while he speaks with Ukrainian sol …

"We have no common vision of the situation," Lavrov grimly told reporters.

A US diplomat said Kerry found himself at check-mate when Lavrov "made it clear that President (Vladimir) Putin not prepared to make any decision regarding Ukraine until after the referendum on Sunday."

That timing is far too late for US officials who accuse Crimea's separatist leaders and their Kremlin backers of holding the vote at "gunpoint".

Moscow's troops and Crimea's pro-Kremlin militia have encircled Ukraine's military bases and are keeping its ships from going out to sea in an operation Putin says is aimed at "protecting" the Russian speakers from armed nationalists who he says have been given free reign by the new Kiev government.

Lavrov had assured Kerry on Friday that Moscow "has no, and cannot have, any plans to invade the southeast region of Ukraine" while remaining firmly stationed on the Black Sea peninsula.

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Pro-Russian volunteers gather in Lenin square in Simferopol, Crimea on March 14, 2014 (AFP Photo/Fil …

But Lavrov also gave one of Russia's strongest hints to date that the Kremlin intended to put Crimea under its control.

"Everyone understands -- and I say this with all responsibility -- what Crimea means to Russia, and that it means immeasurably more than the Comoros (archipelago) for France or the Falklands for Britain," Russia's top diplomat said.

- Top Russians blacklisted -

Kerry retorted that US President Barack Obama had already "made it clear that there will be consequences" if Russia failed to take immediate steps to resolve the flaring crisis on the EU's eastern frontier.

The European Union will debate travel bans and asset freezes on Monday against Russian officials held responsible for threatening Ukraine's territorial integrity.

The White House has been moving toward punitive measures faster than its European allies -- whose financial and energy sectors are tightly intertwined with Russia's -- and has already approved visa restrictions and financial penalties on Moscow officials.

Germany's Bild daily cited diplomats in Brussels and Washington as saying that the Russians on the joint US-EU travel ban list to be unveiled next week include Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Kremlin chief of staff and close Putin ally Sergei Ivanov along with other top Putin advisers.

US officials have stressed that Putin himself is not on the sanctions list.

But Obama told Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk after talks in the Oval Office that Washington was willing to move much further still if Putin failed to soften his stance immediately.

Russian propaganda war in full swing over Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) — This is Ukraine today, at least as seen by most Russian news media: the government is run by anti-Semitic fascists, people killed in protests were shot by opposition snipers and the West is behind it all.

And the room to disagree with that portrayal is getting smaller by the week.

With Crimea set to hold a referendum Sunday on whether to merge with Russia, the push to demonize Ukraine's leadership has reached fever pitch. Authorities in Ukraine have responded by blocking Russian TV channels.

Lev Gudkov, head of a respected independent Moscow-based polling agency, says the propagandist tone of Russian state television has reached new levels.

"For intensity, comprehensiveness and aggressiveness, this is like nothing I have ever seen over the whole post-Soviet period," Gudkov said.

News bulletins on top network Channel 1 carry extensive reports detailing purported rampant lawlessness to vague threats of reprisals against ethnic Russians and Jews, as well as showing interviews with talking heads alleging foreign-engineered plots.

NTV, owned by gas giant Gazprom's media arm, on Thursday aired a report about purportedly hacked email correspondence between U.S. and Ukrainian officials on plans for staging an attack on military jets. The piece goes on to claim that the incident was to serve as an excuse for the United States to take military action against Russia.

It is steadily becoming conventional wisdom in the most widely watched news shows that those shot dead during protests in Kiev last month were victims of shadowy figures possibly hired by opposition forces.

Right Sector, a radical ultranationalist group that spearheaded the most violent assaults against riot police, is a subject of scaremongering daily exposes. For all the attention it has received, the group has not been granted any posts in the new government and observers say it has little actual clout.

Late Thursday night, clashes broke out in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk between government supporters and a hostile pro-Russian crowd. At one point a pro-Russian mob encircled and threw objects at a small huddle of people, shouting for them to get on their knees. At least one person died in the turmoil.

Rossiya-1, another state station, on the same evening reported that the incident had been provoked by "special forces" of the Maidan, the informal name of the movement that brought about last month's ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych.

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In this photo taken Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, independent news website Lenta.ru chief editor Galina T …

Ukraine's pushback against the Kremlin-led smear campaign has not been much more sophisticated.

Broadcast authorities there on Tuesday ordered the suspension of the signal of Russian state-controlled television stations — a move that drew swift indignation from Moscow and international media advocacy groups alike.

People in Russia's provinces, where Internet penetration is weak, are particularly prone to one-sided information.

"The only sources of information there are the federal television stations, and they have been conducting an exercise in brainwashing," Gudkov said.

In Crimea, one of the two TV stations allowed to broadcast keeps repeating a clip that displays the slogan "March 16: Together with Russia" while blaring the Russian national anthem.

The only other TV station broadcasting there is ATR, run by representatives of the peninsula's Crimean Tatar community which supports the government in Kiev. The channel, which has a "United Country" logo, has shown regular on-the-street interviews with people explaining that they want Crimea to remain part of Ukraine.

Many journalists on the ground covering events in Crimea have faced intimidation and assaults from members of pro-Russian militia forces, further complicating efforts to report a fuller picture.

A recent survey published this week by Gudkov's Levada Center appears to show the propaganda campaign has had the desired effect in Russia. Asked if there were grounds for Russia deploying troops to Crimea, which has an ethnic Russian majority, 43 percent of respondents said a military response was justified because people there were at risk of attack from "bandits and nationalists." Another 28 percent agreed on the threat, but suggested a political solution would be preferable.

There have been no signs people in Crimea are facing threats.

Dissenting Russians have turned to online sources for alternative viewpoints, including on current developments in Ukraine, but an unfolding crackdown on Internet news outlets looks set to stem that flow.

On Wednesday, the owner of leading independent news website Lenta.ru fired its chief editor, Galina Timchenko, following official complaints over the outlet's coverage of Ukraine.

The communications regulator said Lenta.ru breached a law banning dissemination of extremist material by linking to comments by Dmytro Yarosh, a nationalist Ukrainian leader wanted in Russia on charges of instigating terrorism.

Ominously for online outlets, closure of websites deemed to contain "extremist" material or incitements to join unauthorized rallies can as of this year be closed without a court order.

One day after the Lenta.ru editor was fired, a handful of websites notable for their criticism of the government, and a blog run by prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny, were summarily banned on a request from prosecutors.

"Russian authorities are unabashedly cleansing the media landscape of independent voices that have the power to shape minds," said Committee to Protect Journalists representative Nina Ognianova. "We condemn this ban on alternative sources of news and opinion, and call on Moscow to cease this Soviet-style crackdown."

Less than half of Russia's adult population uses the Internet on a daily basis, but the sight of commuters in Moscow and other major cities glued to their smartphones suggests that is changing.

"The authorities are increasingly interested in the generation that looks much more at the Internet," said Sergei Buntman, deputy editor of liberal-leaning Ekho Moskvy radio station, whose website was also momentarily blocked by major providers overnight Thursday.

"Turning off sources of information to skeptics is probably the main goal of this drumbeat of propaganda that there has been since the events in Ukraine," Buntman said.

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AP reporter Mike Eckel in Simferopol, Ukraine contributed to this report.

Russia's all-out propaganda war over Ukraine

Russian media demonize Ukraine’s leadership, and Ukrainian authorities respond by blocking Russian TV.
'Soviet-style crackdown'

Election commission officials count ballots ahead a referendum at the polling station in the Crimean town of Simferopol March 15, 2014. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili

By Aleksandar Vasovic and Mike Collett-White

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Pro-Russian leaders in Crimea made final preparations on Saturday for a referendum widely expected to transfer control of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine to Moscow, despite the threat of sanctions and condemnation from Western governments.

Sunday's vote, dismissed by Kiev as illegal, has triggered the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War, and ratcheted up tensions not only in Crimea but also eastern Ukraine, where two people were killed in clashes late on Friday.

The streets of the Crimean capital of Simferopol were calm on Saturday, despite a heavy military presence incongruous with the normally sleepy town.

Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov, whose election in a closed session of the regional parliament is not recognized by Kiev, said there were enough security personnel to ensure that Sunday's vote would be safe.

"I think we have enough people - more than 10,000 in the self-defense (forces), more than 5,000 in different units of the Interior Ministry and the security services of the Crimean Republic," he told reporters.

In Kiev, the Ukrainian parliament voted to dissolve the Crimean regional assembly which has organized the referendum and backs union with Russia.

One Ukrainian nationalist leader in the Kiev legislature said the Crimean assembly must be sanctioned to discourage separatist movements in the mainly Russian-speaking east of Ukraine.

Aksyonov and Moscow do not officially recognize that Russian troops have taken control of Crimea, and say that thousands of unidentified armed men visible across the region belong to "self-defense" groups created to ensure stability.

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Election commission officials count ballots ahead a referendum at the polling station in the Crimean …

But the Russian military has done little to hide the arrival of thousands of soldiers, along with trucks, armored personnel carriers and artillery. Masked gunmen surrounding Ukrainian military installations in Crimea have identified themselves as Russian troops.

Moscow leases the Crimean port of Sevastopol from Kiev to station its Black Sea Fleet. Under the deal it can station up to 25,000 troops there but not on other Ukrainian territory.

The intervention follows the fall of Ukraine's pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovich on February 22 amid street protests in Kiev over his decision to ditch a trade deal with Europe in favor of economic ties with former Soviet overlord Russia.

Most of Crimea's electorate of 1.5 million is expected to choose joining Russia in the referendum, reflecting an ethnic Russian majority. For many locals, the choice is as much economic as political.

"In Russia I can earn over three times what I do in Ukraine," said Svetlana Dzubenko, a Crimean employee on Ukraine's rail network in her 20s.

"My pay now is 3,000 hryvnias ($300) a month, but in Russia I would earn 45,000 roubles, or about 12,000 hryvnias... I have nothing left once I've paid for housing, heating and food. What if I want to save up? What if I get sick?"

"CRIMES GO UNPUNISHED"

Pro-Kiev Ukrainians complain about the highly visible military presence and growing number of pro-Russian volunteers, many carrying batons, patrolling streets and conducting searches at Simferopol's main railway station.

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A member of a Crimean self-defence unit guards the Crimean parliament building on the eve of a refer …

"The Russians are intimidating us, beating us, they are abducting activists, they are exerting pressure on media, but we must persevere," said Oleh Mykolaichuk, 21, at a small rally of around 100 people in Simferopol.

"We cannot fight them with arms, we must do it peacefully."

Ethnic Tatars, Sunni Muslims of Turkic origin who make up 12 percent of Crimea's population, have said they will boycott the referendum, despite promises by the authorities to give them financial aid and proper land rights.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Saturday that self-defense units and paramilitaries in Crimea had attacked and harassed activists and journalists.

"Crimean authorities are allowing illegal and unidentified armed units to run the show in the peninsula, and to commit crimes that go uninvestigated and unpunished," said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at HRW.

Aksyonov said there had been no attacks on journalists, blaming some media for provoking confrontations deliberately.

He also said this week that more than 80 percent of Crimeans supported the break with Ukraine and union with Russia, and that the referendum would be free and fair.

Aksyonov was cautious on how long Crimea's annexation might take should the vote go as he expects, saying the process could last up to a year.

But the United States and Europe could impose sanctions on dozens of Russians linked to Crimea's takeover as soon as Monday, even before the final referendum results are published.

Despite the regional government's confidence in that outcome, it was taking no chances, distributing fliers around Simferopol recalling the patriotic fervor whipped up by the Soviets during World War Two.

"Your Motherland is calling!" said one. "Say Yes to Russia!"

Russia has justified taking control of Crimea by saying it was defending its people against "fascists" in Kiev, a reference to far-right protesters who fought police in deadly clashes in the capital that led to the fall of the government.

Underlining the confidence authorities have in the outcome of the referendum, cinemas will begin dubbing Western films in Russian rather than Ukrainian.

But considerable uncertainty surrounds the future of pro-Kiev Ukrainians should Crimea become a part of Russia and of the thousands of Ukrainian troops who have looked on helplessly as Russian forces take over.

"All decisions on that are being made on a strategic level in Kiev," said a Ukrainian defense ministry official in Crimea, Vladislav Seleznyov. "We are trying to fulfill our duties here on the ground for now."

(Writing by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Russia has done little to hide thousands of soldiers, as Western governments threaten sanctions.

Tensions rise

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — In his final address to Afghanistan's parliament Saturday, President Hamid Karzai told the United States its soldiers can leave at the end of the year because his military, which already protects 93 percent of the country, was ready to take over entirely.

He reiterated his stance that he would not sign a pact with the United States that would provide for a residual force of U.S. troops to remain behind after the final withdrawal, unless peace could first be established.

The Afghan president has come under heavy pressure to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement, with a council of notables that he himself convened recommend that he sign the pact. The force would train and mentor Afghan troops, and some U.S. Special Forces would also be left behind to hunt down al-Qaida.

All 10 candidates seeking the presidency in April 5 elections have said they would sign the security agreement. But Karzai himself does not appear to want his legacy to include a commitment to a longer foreign troop presence in his country.

Karzai was brought to power in the wake of the 2001 U.S.-led invasion and subsequently won two presidential elections __ in 2004 and again in 2009. But he has in recent years espoused a combatative nationalism, with his hour-long speech Saturday no exception.

"I want to say to all those foreign countries who maybe out of habit or because they want to interfere, that they should not interfere," he said.

Headlines: Afghan President Karzai says war has le …Play video

Karzai said the war in Afghanistan was "imposed" on his nation, presumably by the 2001 invasion, and told the United States it could bring peace to Afghanistan if it went after terrorist sanctuaries and countries that supported terrorism, a reference to Pakistan.

Pakistan has a complicated relationship with the Taliban. It backed the group before their 2001 overthrow, and although now it is at war with its own militants, Afghan insurgents sometimes find refuge on its territory.

Karzai told parliament, which was holding its opening session for this term, that security forces were strong enough to defend Afghanistan without the help of international troops.

Karzai steps down after next month's presidential elections. Under Afghanistan's constitution, he is banned from seeking a third term.

He came to power in December 2001 following an international agreement signed in Bonn, Germany, and was confirmed by a Loya Jirga or grand council that selected a transitional government to rule while preparing for nationwide elections. He subsequently won two presidential elections.

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai, center, arrives at an opening session at the parliament house in Kabu …

Relations between Karzai and the United States have been on a downward spiral since his re-election in 2009, in which the United States and several other countries charged widespread fraud. Karzai in turn accused them of interference.

In his speech Karzai again urged Taliban insurgents to join the peace process, while accusing Pakistan of protecting the Taliban leadership. He suggested that Pakistan was behind the killing earlier this year of a Taliban leader who supported the peace process. No one has taken responsibility for the attack.

Throughout his speech Karzai spoke of his accomplishments over the last 12 years, saying schools were functioning, rights were being given to women, energy projects were coming online and the Afghan currency had been stabilized. Karzai said that when he first took power his country was isolated and nothing was functioning.

"I know the future president will protect these gains and priorities and will do the best for peace in the country and I, as an Afghan citizen, will support peace and will cooperate."

Afghanistan's current parliament plans to tackle a number of key issues, including a controversial law on the elimination of violence against women.

Meanwhile the Taliban released two Afghan army personnel, captured during last month's deadly raids on two military check points, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement Saturday. The men were freed after elders in the region interceded on their behalf and the military agreed to hand over to the Taliban the bodies of their colleagues left behind on the battlefield.

The attacks on Feb. 23 left 21 Afghan army personnel dead. Several insurgents were also killed.

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Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan and can be followed on www.twitter.com/kathygannon