Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, in his first speech since he was declared the winner of the disputed presidential election, said on Tuesday that he wanted to tackle corruption but made no specific commitments to reorganise his administration.

“Afghanistan has been tarnished by administrative corruption, and I will launch a campaign to clean the government of corruption,” he said. Asked if that might involve changing important ministers and officials, he said: “These problems cannot be solved by changing high-ranking officials. We’ll review the laws and see what problems are in the law, and we will draft some new laws.” He added that he would try to strengthen an anti-corruption commission that was set up last year.

Although he said repeatedly that his government would seek to unify the country and that he wanted to work with all Afghans, he did not offer his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, a place in the government.

His comments at a news conference followed an admonition from President Obama on Monday that he must take on what American officials have said he avoided during his first term: rampant corruption and the drug trade, which have fueled the resurgence of the Taliban.

After Karzai was declared the winner, Obama placed a congratulatory call in which he asked for a “new chapter” in the legitimacy of the Afghan government.

What he is seeking, Obama said afterward, is “a sense on the part of President Karzai that, after some difficult years in which there has been some drift, that in fact he’s going to move boldly and forcefully forward and take advantage of the international community’s interest in his country to initiate reforms internally. That has to be one of our highest priorities.”

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