U.S.: Musharraf a "good ally" despite disagreements

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Embattled Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been a "good ally," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday, but she refused to say whether he would receive U.S. asylum if he stepped down.

"This is an issue that is not on the table," Rice said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday." A spokesman for Musharraf, who has ruled since a 1999 coup, has insisted he would not resign.

Pakistan's ruling coalition, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has prepared impeachment charges against Musharraf for violating the constitution and misconduct, a coalition official said over the weekend.

Musharraf's November 3 imposition of emergency rule was a main charge on the impeachment list, the official said.

"President Musharraf has been a good ally," said Rice.

"Everyone knows that we disagreed with his decision in terms of the state of emergency that he declared, but he was -- he kept to his word. He took off the uniform. There's now a democratic government in Pakistan."

Musharraf imposed emergency rule in November, leading to the detention of thousands of opposition politicians shortly before he was sworn in as a civilian leader. The emergency rule was lifted in December, days before Bhutto's assassination.

The long-running crisis surrounding Musharraf's future has heightened concern in the United States and other allies about the stability of the nuclear-armed Muslim state.

Rice, in her television interview, declined to criticize the Pakistani leader. In general, Western countries appreciate Musharraf's efforts to contain Islamic militants who have provided shelter for the Taliban and al Qaeda near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, interviewed on ABC's "This Week," said that while al Qaeda remained in a remote corner of Pakistan it was anything but comfortable there.

"When al Qaeda was in Afghanistan, they had the partnership of a government. They had ready access to international communications, ready access to travel," he said.

Isolated on the Pakistan/Afghani border "it's much more difficult for them to move around, much more difficult for them to communicate," Gates said.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Todd Eastham)