PARIS: Afghan President Hamid Karzai says in an interview published in France that the United States is attacking him because it wants to him to be more "docile."

Karzai's re-election bid has faced controversy over alleged fraud. Le Figaro newspaper quotes him as saying that fraud is "inevitable in a budding democracy."

He says Americans who are "attacking Karzai secretly" are wrong to do so — and it's in no one's interest for the Afghan president to be a U.S. puppet.

He says he believes he has won the August election. The official outcome is not expected for weeks.

Karzai said in the interview from Kabul published Monday that he has sought in writing, but failed to obtain, U.S. proof of allegations that his younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai is a drug trafficker.