KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday he would work to curb corruption in his next five years in office but gave no specifics about how he would accomplish that or which cabinet members might be fired to clean up his administration.

"We have been tarnished with corruption, and we will continue to make every possible effort to wipe off this stain," Karzai said at his first news conference since he was certified Monday as the winner of the 2009 presidential election.

As Karzai spoke, one of his most controversial aides, Marshal Mohammad Fahim, stood next to him. Fahim, a vice president, has been accused of war crimes and dogged by allegations that he is tied to the drug trade.

The White House has identified corruption in the Karzai administration as a key factor in weakening the eight-year-old war against the Taliban.

Karzai has had uneasy relations with the Obama administration, particularly as the Afghan president's campaign was accused of being involved in widespread voter fraud in recent months.

There are still plenty of doubts among Afghans and Western diplomats about Karzai's willingness to remove political allies who may have been involved in misconduct.

"I think the corruption and the failures in the system and the government cannot only be fixed through removal," Karzai said yesterday. "There are rules and there are regulations and there are laws that need to be reformed."

Karzai won a new term after his challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of a runoff over the weekend, citing concerns that voter fraud also would mar the second round.

Karzai has never admitted that his campaign was involved in fraudulent activities during the first round Aug. 20, and he referred to those allegations again yesterday as "defamation and disrespect."

He praised Abdullah as a strong candidate "whose campaigning was much better than mine," and said he wanted to form "a government of unity."

Karzai gave no specifics as to whom he might include or whether he would back reforms Abdullah sought, such as electing, rather than appointing, provincial governors.

Karzai also said he would reach out to the Taliban and try to get it to renounce violence, but again he offered no specifics.

The Taliban-led insurgency has rebounded strongly in recent years and had made disrupting the elections a key element of its recent violence.

Last Wednesday, the Taliban attacked a guesthouse where U.N. election workers were staying, killing five U.N. workers and wounding nine.

The Taliban sought this week to generate a propaganda victory from the decision to scuttle the runoff.

"The cancellation of the runoff election shows that all decisions are made in Washington and London but announced in Afghanistan," said a statement released by the Taliban's self-styled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The statement ridiculed the "air and ground forces" for being unable to stop the attack at the guesthouse.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who visited Kabul on Monday, has asked the General Assembly for an additional $75 million to help improve security for U.N. workers in Afghanistan.

Reform is a tall order. Afghans pay bribes for everything from driver's licenses to police protection, and members of the elite all too often treat state property as their own.

"Right now 85 percent of the government is corrupt," said Ahmed Shah Lumar, a businessman in the southern city of Kandahar.

Corruption is not limited to the rich and powerful. It is woven into the very fabric of everyday Afghan life.

Villagers in the southern province of Helmand say police routinely stop them on the highways and demand money to pass. In the capital, Kabul, government employees shake down people applying for driver's licenses, passports, or building permits.

"If you have some work to be done, you need to get 30 people to sign one piece of paper for you," bank employee Safiullah Habibi said. "Then you have to pay each person a small bribe to sign."

Several years ago, U.S. military officials began hearing complaints that lower-ranking police officers and soldiers never received their full salary. As the money was transferred down the chain of command, officers and sergeants would siphon off a portion for themselves.

Soldiers and police make up for the shortfall by stealing food from merchants or shaking down motorists. U.S. Embassy and military officials say the country's drug trade flourishes in part because police take bribes to turn a blind eye to trafficking.

U.S. officials have since tried to institute an electronic payment system to prevent commanders from taking cuts from paychecks, but some soldiers still complain they do not receive all they are owed.

"Even a judge in Afghanistan doesn't make enough money that he can afford not to be corrupt," said Lumar, the Kandahar businessman. "From the judge to the policemen on the street, their salaries are not enough to cover rent, hospital, education, and insurance for their families."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday that the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was working with the Afghans on an anticorruption compact, but he declined to comment on benchmarks or deadlines.