SYDNEY: Australia on Sunday welcomed the democratic resolution of Pakistan''s leadership as it urged the country''s new president to focus on security issues, particularly in the Afghan border region.

Asif Ali Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated nine months ago, secured a large win in Pakistan''s presidential elections on Saturday.

"That''s good in the sense the Pakistani democratic and parliamentary process has resolved that without a need for intervention from the military so we welcome that," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.

“We hope now that the Pakistani government and political system can now start to focus on the very serious political and economic, and social and strategic and security problems, that Pakistan has, particularly abutting the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, which bring very deleterious consequences for our troops in Afghanistan."