US smothers talk of aid cuts

US, US President George W. Bush on Monday urged Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf to lift a state of emergency, quit as army chief, and hold elections soon - but left unclear whether US aid hung in the balance.

Asked what he would do if Musharraf spurns such advice, Bush replied: "All we can do is continue to work with the president, as well as others in the Pak government, to make it abundantly clear the position of the United States."

With Washington unable to convince Musharraf last week not to go ahead with the crackdown, Bush strongly pushed the nuclear-armed ally in the US war on terror to reverse course and push ahead with elections set for January.

"We expect there to be elections as soon as possible, and that the president should remove his military uniform," Bush said. "Our hope is that he will restore democracy as quickly as possible."

"And then obviously we'll deal with it if something other than that happens," the US president said, breaking his silence on the crisis as he met at the White House with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered the same message to Musharraf by telephone from her official aircraft as she left the Middle East, her spokesman Sean McCormack said, offering no specific details.

The White House said Washington's assistance to Pakistan was "under review" - in part to assess whether Musharraf's move triggered any automatic freeze on some forms of aid - but strongly suggested that there would be no reduction.

And one senior Bush aide, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said Musharraf was expected to let the world know within about a week how he would proceed and pleaded for patience.

"In our judgment, he's made a mistake," the official said.

"The question is: What do you do when someone makes that mistake that is a close ally? You know, do you cut him off, hit him with sanctions, walk out the door? Or do you try and see if you can work them to get them back on track?" the official said.

"The president's guidance to us is see if we can work with them to get back on track," said the official, who called aid cuts "a card that has to be played fairly carefully."

"What we're looking for now in the next several days, sometime in the course of this week, we would hope, is some clarification on the intentions of the government.

And we've made clear the direction on which we think they ought to proceed," the official said.

Washington, Tuesday, AFP