INTERVIEW: Afghan Hopeful Credits US Deal --- Somber and reflective, Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah says his country was on the verge of a "very serious, serious situation" before he struck a U.S.-brokered deal with his rival to avert the crisis by holding a fully audited vote count. --- Asked about a published report that some supporters were ready to seize the presidential palace by force before the deal, because they feared the June 14 runoff was being decided fraudulently, he declined to discuss details. -- "But it was a very serious, serious situation, not just in Kabul but throughout the country," said Abdullah, an opposition leader with strong support in northern Afghanistan, especially among the ethnic Tajik community and loyalists of the former Northern Alliance militia. -- There already had been widespread reports that Abdullah was under pressure from angry backers to declare himself the victor in the contest against former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, and that he was resisting their pressure. A report by the New York Times on Tuesday suggested the outlook for Afghanistan was even direr than publicly known — that Abdullah's backers were ready to march on the palace. Abdullah did not specifically deny the report. -- The 53-year-old veteran of the movement that resisted the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in the 1990s and swept into Kabul after it allied with U.S. forces following the 9/11 attacks said he decided on the deal with Ahmadzai for an audited ballot return followed by a national unity government because "this was the right decision for the country, and for the future of the country." --- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry swept into Afghanistan Friday to try to engineer a way out of the dispute, and by shortly before midnight on Saturday, the two candidates were at Kerry's side declaring they had found a way out of the deadlock. -- Still, Afghanistan's serious challenges were underscored yet again Tuesday when a suicide car bomb exploded in Paktia province in a busy market near a mosque. Officials reported at least 89 killed, which would make it the largest single suicide attack since 2001, the year the Taliban fled the capital and later resumed a guerrilla campaign against the new Western-backed Afghan government. -- "People were shocked and we are shocked, but this is the sad reality of Afghanistan," said Abdullah. -- Abdullah said the formula for the national unity government still needs to be worked out. - More, Associated Press, http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ap-interview-afghan-hopeful-credits-us-deal-24572522