(For more on Afghanistan, click [ID:nAFPAK]) KABUL, Sept 30 (Reuters) - America's top diplomat at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan has been removed from his post following a row with his European boss over the country's presidential election, a U.N. official told Reuters on Wednesday. Peter Galbraith, deputy to UN special envoy Kai Eide, had taken an aggressive and outspoken line toward fraud in the Aug. 20 vote, angering his Norwegian boss who has preferred to operate behind the scenes. Galbraith left Kabul earlier this month after the two men quarrelled. U.N. officials acknowledged the dispute at the time but played it down as a a difference over "style", and said they expected Galbraith to return. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the U.N. headquarters in New York had not authorised staff to speak publicly on the matter, said Galbraith would not be coming back to Afghanistan. Galbraith was not immediately available for comment. An official announcement was expected to be made later in the day. The row has exposed divisions among Afghanistan's Western backers over how to deal with the presidential election, which was marred by allegations of widespread fraud and locked Afghanistan in a prolonged period of uncertainty. Preliminary results gave Karzai a 54.6 percent lead, but a U.N.-backed fraud watchdog has ordered an audit of the results from 12 percent of polling stations where suspiciously large numbers of votes were cast or one candidate received 95 percent. If enough of Karzai's ballots are nullified because of fraud that he no longer has 50 percent, he must face his main challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, in a run-off. In a process that could last until mid-October, Afghan officials are now examining suspect votes in an effort to determine whether a second round is necessary. Galbraith, a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, is a close ally of Richard Holbrooke, the outspoken U.S. point man for Afghanistan and Pakistan who had a difficult meeting with Karzai after the election. (Reporting by Peter Graff and Maria Golovnina; Editing by Alex Richardson) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
A wounded Afghan boy lies on a hospital bed in Kandahar September 29, 2009. A roadside bomb struck a passenger bus outside Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday, killing 12 ...
