After a long session of talks, Afghanistan's two presidential candidates have finally reached an agreement on Saturday to address allegations of vote-rigging that threatened to topple its fragile government.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani late Friday night and ended on Saturday after both sides had agreed to a comprehensive audit of the presidential electoral ballots, with the subsequent winner to set up a national unity government.

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The ballot boxes will be flown to the country's capital in Kabul by U.S. helicopters and examined while international authorities and representatives from both sides oversee the audit.

The review will presumably take several weeks to complete with the planned August 2 inauguration pushed back and Afghan President Hamid Karzai staying on as president until a new one is declared.

While the election has posed "serious challenges," Abdullah commended presidential rival Ghani for working towards a resolution to the election problems.

Similarly, Ghani praised Abdullah for his commitment to discourse that would lead to national unity.

"Stability is the desire of everyone," he said. He believed that by "committing to the most thorough audit," any doubts and uncertainty in the process would be eliminated.

The resolution has come at a time when foreign and domestic groups have expressed concern over the possibility of the existence of opposing governments that could lead to the escalation of civil unrest and division of its security forces amid chaos from the Taliban.

There is still a lot to be done, however.

"This will be still a difficult road because there are important obligations required and difficult decisions to be made," Kerry said.

He said that the U.S. is not taking sides and stressed that both sides must set aside differences for the sake of the country.

Abdullah and Ghani committed to signing a joint security agreement with the U.S. though it was noted by The Hindu that Karzai has declined to sign.

According to Washington, the pact would give them the legal guarantee it sought from Afghanistan so they could leave some 10,000 American troops in Kabul next year. Otherwise, it may have to extract all its troops from the country.

TagsJohn Kerry, Abdullah Abdullah, Ashraf Ghani, Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan politics, Afghanistan presidential elections, Troops pull out