Backgrounder: Hamid Karzai's profile

Hamid Karzai is to be sworn into office on Thursday. On November the 2nd, Afghan election officials declared Karzai would be president for another five-year term.

The 51-year-old Karzai was Afghanistan's first democratically elected president. The October 2004 presidential election showed that most Afghans recognized Karzai offered the best prospects for stability after a quarter century of conflict. In March, 2009, Karzai announced he would stay in office after his term officially ended on May the 21st until elections in August, later saying he would run for re-election.

Eight years after he was chosen to lead an interim government following the overthrow of the Taliban, Karzai's relationship with his Western backers has grown increasingly strained, with widespread fraud in the first round of voting further souring ties. To make matters worse the resurgent Taliban have taken advantage of the post-election turmoil to launch increasingly bold attacks.