The announcement of Ghana's presidential election result is being delayed as parties haggle over vote counts in disputed constituencies, according to Ghanaian radio reports.

Unofficial tallies of the result suggest the difference between the two major candidates could be as little as 27,000 votes in a total of 8.7 million votes cast.

A correspondent for Joy FM radio reported three hours after the result was scheduled to be announced Tuesday that representatives of opposition candidate John Atta Mills - who has a slight lead in unofficial figures - and ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo were locked in talks with election commission head Kwadwo Afari-Gyan.

Party insiders told the correspondent that party and electoral officials were working through constituency results one by one in cases where a dispute could affect the outcome of the election.

As election monitors reported that shops and offices in the capital, Accra, were closing early for fear of violence, both outgoing President John Kufuor and former President Jerry Rawlings called for calm.

A civil society grouping, the National Commission for Civic Education, urged the election commission to "fearlessly declare the result... very urgently." And the National Media Commission urged radio and television stations not to publish reports which could cause "confusion." Joy FM on Monday called the election for Atta Mills.

Atta Mills is standing for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which won the parliamentary elections on December 7. It is the party of Jerry Rawlings, which has been out of power for the past eight years. Akufo-Addo is standing for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of President Kufuor.

The two candidates were forced into a second-round run-off election when neither drew 50 percent of votes in the first round on December 7.