America talks tough, asks Mush to end Emergency

Islamabad: US envoy John Negroponte said on Sunday he had urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to end Emergency rule, warning it was "not compatible" with free and fair elections due by early January and would undermine them.

The US deputy secretary of state, who met Musharraf on Saturday, praised his role in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, saying Washington valued its partnership with its ally. But he bluntly called on him to lift emergency rule. "Emergency rule is not compatible with free, fair and credible elections," Negroponte, the United States' No. 2 diplomat, told a press conference at the US embassy.

Negroponte said he had also called on Musharraf to release thousands of opposition figures who have been rounded up and imprisoned, and to stick to his word to quit as army chief. "Recent police actions against protesters, suppression of the media, and arrests of political and human rights leaders" could undermine Pakistan's transition to a moderate and democratic nation," he said

"If those steps aren't taken, it will certainly undermine the government's ability to conduct satisfactory elections."

Negroponte said reconciliation between moderate political forces—the rift between Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto—was "very desirable".

The US had hoped the pair, seen as supportive of its war on terrorism, would share power after the election, but Bhutto has ruled out working with Musharraf and is seeking to form a political alliance with other opposition parties.

"Engagement and dialogue, not brinksmanship and confrontation, should be the order of the day for all parties," he said. "If steps were taken by both sides to move back towards the kinds of reconciliation discussions that they have been having previously, we think that that would be very positive."

Musharraf has promised elections will be held by January 9, and has said he is determined to remove his army uniform and be sworn in as a civilian president once a pending Supreme Court ruling on his October re-election is out.