U.S. President Barack Obama urged Afghan leader Hamid Karzai to root out the widespread corruption that has plagued his regime.

Karzai says he will press for reform.

Under serious pressure from the international community, Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised today to clean up the corruption that has come to define his government.

Karzai was declared the winner by default Monday in Afghanistan's presidential election, when chief rival Dr. Abdullah Abdullah dropped out of the scheduled Nov. 7 runoff.

The original election had been tainted by fraud , and Abdullah believed the runoff would suffer the same fate.

The election of Karzai to a second term increases the pressure on President Barack Obama to end his review of Afghan war strategy, and make a decision on whether to increase U.S. troop levels in the 8-year-old conflict.

The Commander-in-Chief insists the real pressure is on Karzai, whom he spoke with by phone.

This morning in Morocco, the U.S Secretary of State echoed those remarks.

It's expected Karzai will try to restore his credibility abroad, by offering cabinet posts to supporters of former opponent, Abdullah Abdullah.