The top U.N. official in Afghanistan said Friday he will step down early next year after a rocky two-year tenure marked by a fraud-marred national election and a deadly Taliban attack on U.N. employees.

The departure of Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide provides an opportunity to restructure the civilian side of the international mission as the Obama administration's military strategy kicks into gear.

The 60-year-old Eide, who oversees the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said he will not renew his contract when it expires in March. He said he has asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to start searching for a replacement so the post would not be vacant like it was for two months before he started.

Eide's stewardship was tarnished by allegations from his American deputy, Peter Galbraith, that he was not bullish enough in curbing fraud in the August presidential election. President Hamid Karzai was declared the winner three months later after his last remaining challenger dropped out of a runoff.

Eide said controversy over the election was not linked to his decision to leave.

The U.N. mission also is still reeling from a pre-dawn assault Oct. 28 on a Kabul guesthouse where dozens of U.N. staffers lived. Five U.N. workers were among those killed in the attack, which prompted the U.N. to relocate hundreds of employees, some outside Afghanistan.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Eide said he had put forth a proposal that calls for better coordinating the civilian effort under the U.N. umbrella. It comes just after President Barack Obama announced he is sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Many of those troops, under the command of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, will be on the ground about the time Eide steps aside.

"If we talk about a transition strategy, which we are with McChrystal's theme, then we have to do the same on the civilian side," Eide said.

Eide said he feared the military buildup ordered by Obama will increase pressure for quick results from civilian aid projects to satisfy taxpayers in donor countries when what is needed is to build up Afghanistan's ability to sustain itself.

He said there is not enough expertise inside the U.N. system and that the civilian-military provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs, were the most "uncoordinated part of the civilian effort."

"You have a number of PRTs that do their own things within provinces," Eide said. "They do not cross provincial boundaries nor are they linked up to the Afghan government the way they should be."

Eide also lamented that while thousands of Afghan civil servants are being trained, it's hard to persuade them to take local official positions paying only $60 to $70 a month.