Bush speaks to Musharraf, urges elections

By Zeeshan Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he had urged Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to hold elections and quit as army chief in a "frank discussion" with an ally fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban.

It was the first time Bush has spoken directly to Musharraf since the leader of nuclear-armed Pakistan declared a state of emergency on Saturday.

Bush's intervention came as former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto threatened to lead a mass protest to the capital unless Musharraf gives up his military post, holds elections and restores the constitution.

Bhutto, leader of the largest opposition party and the politician most capable of mobilizing street power, gave Musharraf until Friday to comply.

The United States had hoped Bhutto would share power with Musharraf after elections due in January, but Musharraf's calling of the emergency brought disarray to U.S. policy.

"My message was that we believe strongly in elections and that you ought to have elections soon and you need to take off your uniform. You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time," Bush told a news conference.

"I had a very frank discussion with him," Bush said.

Pakistan government officials have said January elections will be held on time. A member of Musharraf's inner circle said emergency rule was likely to be lifted within 2 or 3 weeks.

But Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup and imposed emergency rule last Saturday citing a hostile judiciary and rising militancy, has not yet personally confirmed this.

Washington has said it will review aid to Pakistan which has totaled nearly $10 billion since the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

A senior Pentagon general said the U.S. military was worried about the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons after the imposition of emergency rule.

"Any time there is a nation that has nuclear weapons that has experienced a situation such as Pakistan is at present, that is a primary concern," Lt. Gen. Carter Ham, director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

BHUTTO ISSUES DEMANDS

Bhutto made her political demands clear at an Islamabad news conference after meeting members of her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and smaller opposition parties.

"We can't work for dictatorship. We can work for democracy," she said. "General Musharraf can open the door for negotiations only if he revives the constitution, retires as chief of army staff and sticks to the schedule of holding elections."