KABUL, Afghanistan -- Interim leader Hamid Karzai has taken an unofficial simple majority in the Afghan presidential election -- enough to avoid a runoff, the BBC reported Sunday.

With 94 percent of the ballots counted, Karzai had 55 percent, 39 points ahead of his main rival, Yunus Qanuni.

Qanuni's spokesman Sunday conceded Karzai as the winner, but no official declaration will be made until all votes are counted and the United Nations completes its investigation of voting irregularities.

Karzai's office said it appears he is the winner, but will not claim victory until all the ballots are counted.

Election organizers say on their Web site Karzai took more than 4.2 million votes, more than half the estimated 8.1 million ballots cast in the Oct. 9 election.

The election period has been largely free of the violence threatened by the Taliban, but the group claimed responsibility for a street bombing Saturday in Kabul that killed two shoppers and the bomber.

Copyright 2004 by United Press International