FACTBOX: Pakistan's Musharraf beset by political issues

(Reuters) - Pakistan's beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf was consulting his aides on Thursday on whether to declare a state of emergency in the country.

General Musharraf, a staunch U.S. ally, is facing multiple problems at a time when his nation is hoping for a transition away from military-civilian rule toward greater democracy. Here are some of the issues;

-- Islamist militants have stepped up attacks across Pakistan, mainly in the conservative northwest, after a bloody army assault last month on Islamabad's Red Mosque, a militant stronghold. More than 200 people have been killed in these attacks while 102 people died in the assault on the mosque.

-- Musharraf, who is also army chief, has been under growing U.S. pressure in recent weeks to step up action against al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in the tribal areas near the Afghan border.

President George W. Bush last week signed a bill into law tying U.S. aid to progress on militants' crackdown.

U.S. democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said this month the United States must be willing to strike al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan.

-- Musharraf plans to seek another term in office from the sitting assemblies in September or October while remaining in army uniform -- a move fiercely opposed by his rivals and liable to provoke constitutional challenges. He can command the simple majority needed in the assemblies to win re-election, but he lacks the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution

-- The National and provincial assemblies are due to finish their terms in November and parliamentary elections are expected in December or January. The ruling Pakistan Muslim League, cobbled together by Musharraf after he came to power, is expected to fare poorly.

-- Musharraf's popularity has slumped after the Supreme Court last month reinstated the country's chief justice he spent four months trying to sack. This show of judicial independence has raised expectations that challenges to Musharraf's re-election plan could be upheld.

-- Going through the weakest patch of his eight year rule, Musharraf met secretly with exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Abu Dhabi on July 27 to seek some kind of power-sharing deal. Bhutto, however, insists Musharraf should resign from the army before agreeing to any compromise.

-- Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Musharraf ousted in 1999 and later exiled, has petitioned the Supreme Court to lift restrictions on his return.