KABUL, Afghanistan -- Parliamentary elections scheduled for spring will not happen until at least September, President Hamid Karzai said yesterday, in a further delay of the country's full transition to democracy.

The country has grappled with logistical problems, including a lack of census data, in preparing for the elections. But the parliamentary vote, which originally was set to be held at the same time as last year's presidential election, has been repeatedly delayed, in part because of political jockeying among Afghanistan's ethnic and political factions.

Karzai, during a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also insisted that security was improving, despite a bomb attack that killed five people yesterday in Kandahar, 250 miles south of Kabul.

Afghanistan is "among the least violent states in this part of the world," said Karzai, as private security guards armed with assault weapons kept close watch over reporters.

Rice, making her visit to Afghanistan, flew on a military transport and spent barely six hours on the ground under constant and heavy security. The news conference was held at Karzai's heavily fortified palace, surrounded by barricades, watch towers and blocked-off streets.

Some of Karzai's rivals have accused him of stalling the parliamentary vote to strengthen the presidency. While another delay had been expected, the official announcement was considered politically sensitive.

Rice, who is on a weeklong tour of Asia, let slip during the news conference that elections would be held in the fall. "I hope that I've not broken a story," Rice said after a reporter inquired about her statement, as a perturbed-looking Karzai stood next to her. He then confirmed that the elections would probably be held in September.

Later, in an interview with ABC News, Rice said she told Afghan officials that the elections cannot be delayed again. "I made the point to them that it is important that they hold them on time in September, if that's what they announced, because the Afghan people are impatient to have their elections," she said.

Under an international agreement reached in Bonn, Germany, in December 2002, Afghanistan's interim government agreed to prepare "for free and fair elections by June 2004." But the presidential elections were pushed back until October.

As she made her way through Kabul, Rice shook hands with U.S. troops and held separate meetings with officials in the election commission, leaders of 11 small political parties and a selected group of prominent women. She also briefly toured the recently reopened Kabul museum, viewing century-old wood carvings of kissing couples that had been meticulously restored after they had been smashed by the former Taliban government.

Rice's meeting with officials from the smaller parties was part of an effort to bolster groups that espouse democratic principles and support Karzai, in contrast to the three largest parties. The meeting was organized by the National Democratic Institute, which is trying to foster a workable party system in Afghanistan with parties that identify substantive policy platforms, as opposed to simply grouping together according to ethnic group interests, according to Peter Dimitroff, NDI Afghanistan country director.

Rice also received a briefing from U.S. officials about the growing drug-production problem in Afghanistan, which the State Department said in a recent report was on the verge of becoming a narcotics state.