KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan government lashed out Thursday over criticism of its expulsion of an American journalist, denouncing him as a spy in an official statement.

Both the U.S. ambassador and the top United Nations representative in Afghanistan criticized the government's expulsion of New York Times correspondent Matthew Rosenberg, 40.

The journalist left Kabul on Thursday, within a 24-hour deadline imposed by the Afghan attorney general's office. The order came after an article written by Rosenberg, published Tuesday, reported on efforts by some officials to resolve an electoral crisis.

After the public condemnations, the Government Media and Information Center, an agency controlled by President Hamid Karzai's office, issued a statement saying it "considers Mr. Rosenberg's report more of an espionage act than a journalistic work, one that was meant to create panic and disruption in people's minds, and provide the basis for other spying purposes."

Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The New York Times, who has strongly protested the expulsion order, rejected the accusation against Rosenberg.

"I am outraged," Baquet said. "He is a reporter who breaks important stories."

The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, James Cunningham, met with Karzai on Thursday and afterward issued a statement calling the expulsion a threat to the country's budding democratic system and a "regrettable step backward" for its press freedom.

It appeared that the ambassador did not ask Karzai to reverse the decision to expel Rosenberg, but Cunningham's statement reflected U.S. anger with the Karzai government.

"I expressed today to President Karzai our strong concern about this unwarranted action," the ambassador's statement said. "I asked him to affirm his government's recognition of the importance of protecting the freedom of the press, as an important part of the legacy of his presidency."

Earlier, Jan Kubis, the representative of the U.N. secretary-general, issued a statement that said the expulsion was "a disturbing disregard for freedom of expression" and called on the Afghan government "to urgently review their actions in light of due process, domestic laws and the international obligations of Afghanistan to safeguard media freedoms in the country."

The action against Rosenberg was the first public expulsion of a Western journalist in Afghanistan since the Taliban were felled in the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. It came as the Afghan government is mired in a crisis over a disputed presidential election and as the United States is preparing to withdraw military forces at the end of this year.

In his article on the electoral crisis, Rosenberg reported discussions among high-ranking officials about forming an interim governing committee as a possible way to resolve the impasse, a step that would amount to a coup.

The Afghan attorney general's office said in a statement that the article was "considered divisive and contrary to the national interest, security and stability of Afghanistan."

Afghan officials did not deny the article's accuracy or specify what laws had been violated by its publication, but they previously had complained about the use of anonymous sources in the article.

The statement by the government media agency, which was formed with financing and training from the U.S. government, called the U.N. criticism "far from reality." It expressed regret that the United Nations "called such an intelligence act a journalistic act," referring to Rosenberg's article.

Aimal Faizi, the spokesman for Karzai, said the government "at the highest levels" had viewed the article as a threat to its national security and felt it was motivated by "deep state interests," a term used by anti-American figures in the government to refer to what they view as U.S. interference in Afghan affairs.

Cunningham called the decision "a regrettable step backward for the freedom of the press in this country."

"Freedom of the press and the establishment of a vibrant media environment are important achievements for Afghanistan and its citizens in the country's first dozen years of democracy," his statement said. "These gains are threatened by the decision yesterday by the government of Afghanistan to expel New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg. We deplore this decision, which is unjustified and based on unfounded allegations."

Cunningham also said "there is no mistaking the signal this sends to all journalists working in Afghanistan, whether they are Afghan, American, or any other nationality."

Rosenberg was on a flight out of the country as Cunningham's statement was released.

A few hours earlier, on his Twitter account, Rosenberg posted the expulsion order, which called him a spy with "secret relations." He also said the chief prosecutor of Kabul and the border police had escorted him through the Kabul airport immigration check.

A Section on 08/22/2014