The signing – broadcast live on national TV – comes after months of wrangling following presidential elections in April and June.

Under the deal, Ashraf Ghani becomes president while runner-up Abdullah Abdullah nominates a CEO with powers similar to those of prime minister.

The final result of the bitterly contested poll is due to be announced.

Both sides had accused the other of fraud following the election.

Ghani and Abdullah signed the agreement at a ceremony inside the presidential palace in the capital, Kabul. They then stood and embraced each other.

Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai congratulated the two men, saying that the agreement was “for the progress and development of this country”.

“On behalf of the Afghan nation, I am congratulating them on this understanding and agreement,” he said in his speech.

The US hailed the deal as an “important opportunity for unity”.

“We support this agreement and stand ready to work with the next administration to ensure its success,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

The power-sharing deal was finally reached after a comprehensive audit of all eight million votes, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

BBC Afghanistan correspondent David Loyn, who has seen a copy of the agreement, says it averts potential violence by supporters of Abdullah.

The agreement says the new CEO will be answerable to Mr Ghani, although he has lost a battle to be sworn in after the announcement of the election result, our correspondent says.

The new chief executive – nominated by Abdullah – will be side-by-side with the president when he is inaugurated.

Abdullah will be able to appoint senior positions on terms of “parity” with Ghani. The agreement says “the two teams will be equally represented at the leadership level”.

However, our correspondent says there will not be a one-for-one handout of jobs further down and that could lead to arguments.

The agreement calls for a spirit of partnership. But after a bitter election campaign and months of wrangling, the stability of this government cannot be guaranteed, he adds.

Earlier, Abdullah told the BBC that he accepted Mr Ghani should be leader.

A spokesman for Ghani said that there was no longer any dispute between the two sides.

One of the new president’s first tasks is widely expected to be signing a bilateral security agreement with the US.

The deal will allow a small force of soldiers to remain beyond 2014 to train Afghan security forces.

President Karzai refused to sign the security agreement, which is linked to the continuation of aid needed to pay Afghan civil servants, teachers and soldiers.

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Asked by the BBC’s Lyse Doucet in Kabul whether what was happening in Iraq could happen in Afghanistan, the president replied: “Never, not at all.”

The outgoing president said that al-Qaeda had no presence in Afghanistan.

Nato troops withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014. Some commentators have warned of an increase in violence.
‘Continued international support’

President Karzai said that he was in regular dialogue with the Taliban – “[They] are in contact with me every day,” he said.

“There is even an exchange of letters, meetings, and desire for peace. [But they were] not able to bring peace on their own, just like I and the Afghan people and government were unable to bring peace on their own.”

Afghans voted in run-off polls in the presidential election on 14 June. Karzai is expected to hand power to his successor in August.

He said his country needed continued international support where it did not have the means to sustain itself.

But Karzai said that the key thing when it came to the protection of Afghanistan was the work of Afghans.

Our correspondent says that the Afghan government has refused to take up a US offer of a strategic pact with the US after 2014.

However, the two men vying to succeed him as president – former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani – have both said that they will sign such a deal.

That could help Afghanistan avoid some of the worst of what is happening in Iraq, our correspondent says.

The president said that he was convinced that previous US President George W Bush’s “war on terror” in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 should not have been fought in Afghan villages and homes.

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, he said it should have been prosecuted in “sanctuaries beyond our borders.”

“I believe that the war on terror was not fought with honesty and not fought genuinely,” he said. “The consequences are being felt across the region.”

Karzai, who has served two terms as Afghanistan’s first and only president since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, is obliged by law to stand down after the latest election.

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Foreigners and Afghans are among the dead following the blast in Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood.

The area is home to a number of foreign embassies and organisations.

The attack happened on a Friday evening when the Taverna du Liban restaurant would have been busy with diners.

The suicide attacker detonated his explosives outside the gate of the heavily-fortified restaurant, the Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi said.

Two gunmen then entered the restaurant and started “indiscriminately killing” people inside.

Salangi said four women were among the dead.

The attackers were eventually shot dead by the security forces when they arrived at the scene.

The BBC’s Mahfouz Zubaide heard the blast and gunfire from at least two kilometres away. He said the gunfire went on sporadically for about 10 minutes.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had been deliberately targeting foreign officials.

Security continues to be a major concern in Afghanistan. The last remaining contingent of Nato-led forces is due to leave by the end of the year, having handed over security to Afghan forces.

Washington is pushing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign an agreement which would allow some US troops to stay behind after this year’s withdrawal.

The Taliban told the BBC’s John Simpson earlier this week that it was now back in control of large areas of Afghanistan and was confident of returning to power after Western troops left.

Our correspondent says it is hard to believe the Taliban could make a comeback as things stand, but their takeover of Kabul in 1996 was unexpected, and they could be strengthened if a weak, corrupt president is elected in April.

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