Kabul, Aug 26 (DPA) Afghan President Hamid Karzai has significantly extended his lead over his challenger Abdullah Abdullah in the presidential election count, latest returns showed Wednesday.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said that Karzai had won 44.8 percent of the votes counted so far. Former foreign minister Abdullah was on 35.1 percent.

The more than 9 percent spread compares with the 2-point lead which Karzai had in the initial returns reported on Tuesday.

The IEC said that just under 941,800 votes had been counted, or slightly more than 17 percent of the ballots cast in the Aug 20 election, so that it was still too early to make any projections about the final outcome.