US envoy gives Musharraf 'strong message'

PAKISTAN, (AFP) A senior US envoy met Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and key aides Saturday to deliver a "very strong message" for an end to emergency rule, diplomats and officials said.

John Negroponte, number two in the US State Department, flew to Islamabad amid signs of growing US concern over the crisis in its key ally in the fight against Islamic militancy.

He and military ruler Musharraf discussed the political crisis as well as the situation across the region, a reference to Taliban and Al-Qaeda unrest, state television reported.

Before that, Negroponte met General Ashfaq Kiyani, Pakistan's deputy army chief of staff under Musharraf and chosen successor if he hangs up his uniform as promised. A military official told AFP they "discussed matters of mutual interest and security."

Western diplomats said Negroponte would call on Musharraf to call off the emergency "right away," quit the army, hold elections on time, lift curbs on the media and release political prisoners.

The United States sees Pakistan as an essential ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban but has been signalling its mounting frustration at Musharraf's refusal to lift emergency rule.

"It's a very strong message. He's going to tell him what the reality and facts are" in Washington, a diplomatic source told AFP before the talks.

That would include the message that the United States is reviewing all its assistance to Pakistan, including military aid.

Washington has spent around 10 billion dollars on aid to Pakistan, much of it to the military, since 2001 when Musharraf sided the nuclear-armed nation with US President George W. Bush's "war on terror." But the Pakistani leader, who seized power in a coup in 1999, said he also had a message to pass on.

"If I am a dictator, I don't know what kind of dictator I am," he told The Washington Post in an interview published Saturday.

"I am the strongest believer in democracy. I brought democracy to Pakistan and I still believe in it."

He added: "I will tell Negroponte and the US that Pakistan comes first and there are certain realities on the ground - extremism and terrorism - that made me decide to go with emergency law." After arriving here, Negroponte spoke late Friday by telephone with former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was freed from house arrest hours earlier.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the envoy wanted to hear how she viewed the situation.