KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan President Hamid Karzai today was expected to accept a U.N.-backed fraud audit reducing his vote in the August election to less than 50 percent, but it wasn't clear if he'd consent to a deal with his chief rival to forge a national unity government and forgo a runoff, U.S. officials said Monday.

The prospect that Karzai might reject the audit, which was released Monday, had threatened to drive Afghanistan deeper into crisis as the Obama administration struggles to revamp a war strategy to reverse the growing Taliban-led insurgency and stem the bloodiest violence in the country since the 2001 U.S. invasion.

As part of an intense U.S.-led effort to pressure Karzai, the White House said it wouldn't consider a request by U.S. military commanders for as many as 80,000 additional troops for Afghanistan until it was convinced that Afghanistan had a credible government.

Karzai was expected to make his announcement at a Kabul news conference with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass, who has been involved in the full-court diplomatic press to pressure Karzai into dropping his objections to the United Nations-sponsored Electoral Complaints Commission's fraud audit.

Two U.S. officials in Washington, who requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly, said that Karzai was expected to accept the audit results at a news conference with Kerry.

However, they said they didn't know whether he'd agreed to embrace the offer by the second-place finisher, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, to forgo a runoff and form a new unity government.

Abdullah told U.S. diplomats last week that he'd drop out of the race if Karzai accepted the audit findings, agreed to form a national unity government that included some Abdullah allies and pledged to pursue reforms that would dilute the presidency's power, including a change to permit the popular election of provincial governors.

"We would like to see a coalition government, but it's up to him (Karzai)," said one U.S. official. "From our standpoint, having him respect the election process will be significant. And it speaks to the credibility of the entire process: that an executive is subject to checks and balances."

Some experts, however, were skeptical of the prospects for any government led by Karzai, whose first five-year term has been marred by massive incompetence, nepotism and corruption fueled by drug smuggling and the billions of dollars in foreign reconstruction aid that's poured into one of the world's poorest nations.

The U.N.-backed commission's audit released Monday stripped nearly 1 million votes from Karzai, confirming massive ballot-box stuffing and other malfeasance – mostly on the Afghan leader's behalf – in the second presidential election in the country's history.

The audit dropped Karzai's vote tally from a preliminary total of 54.6 percent to 48.3 percent, according to an analysis by Democracy International, an organization that has been observing the election on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The audit found far fewer fraudulent votes for Abdullah. His final total would rise from less than 28 percent to about 31 percent.

Under Afghan law, a runoff is required if no candidate captures more than 50 percent of the vote.

While Karzai appeared ready to accept the fraud audit, the crisis has done considerable damage. The spectacle of foreign powers so deeply involved in Afghan politics has played into the hands of the Taliban, which have gained support by portraying Karzai's administration as corrupt and a puppet of the United States.

And the Taliban-led insurgents have vowed to disrupt any runoff with what some U.S. defense officials fear could be violence of greater intensity than was launched against the first round.

If the Afghan Independent Election Commission declares a runoff, Karzai supporters said they'd ask Afghanistan's Supreme Court to annul the decision, charging foreign interference in the election process.

The allegation of foreign interference in a country that has suffered it for centuries has stoked tensions around country.

"I have spoken to a lot of people throughout Afghanistan, and they are ready for action, and they believe we are headed for a crisis," said Mohammad Anwar, a Karzai supporter who is a parliament member from war-torn southern Helmand province.

Under Afghan law, a runoff would have to be held two weeks after the final vote tally was announced, but that would be extremely difficult because of cold weather, insurgent attacks and the sheer logistics of holding a vote.

Call Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Washington Bureau, (202) 383-6012. Landay and Strobel reported from Washington. Bernton, of the Seattle Times, is in Kabul, Afghanistan.