Top U.S. Official Calls Pakistan's Bhutto

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, in Islamabad, spoke by phone with Benazir Bhutto on Friday in the highest-level U.S. contact with the Pakistani opposition leader since President Pervez Musharraf imposed a state of emergency, the State Department said.

"He wanted to hear from her how she viewed the political situation in Pakistan," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, as part of Negroponte's hastily arranged checkup mission on the fast-changing developments involving a key U.S. ally.

Negroponte is expected to speak to Musharraf on Saturday, McCormack said.

Negroponte underscored Washington's opposition to Musharraf's extraconstitutional actions and its desire to see Bhutto, who was under house arrest until earlier Friday, and other opposition figures set free to peacefully participate in Pakistan's political sphere, McCormack said.

Negroponte, the second-highest ranking U.S. diplomat, arrived in Islamabad on Friday to press Musharraf and his government to quickly end the state of emergency, set a date for free and fair legislative elections in January and release opposition leaders.

The United States also wants Musharraf to give up his position as army chief and Negroponte made those points clear in his conversation with Bhutto and a face-to-face meeting with Pakistan's national security advisor, McCormack said.

He declined to comment on whether the United States would like to see Bhutto, a former prime minister, and Musharraf resume discussions on a possible power-sharing plan but said Washington still wanted moderate elements to cooperate on democratization.

"Our hope is ... that Pakistan can resume that course," McCormack said. "In order to do that, it's our assessment that those moderate forces within Pakistani political society are going to need to work together, not only to get back to that point where you have constitutional democratic rule, but for the day after and the day after that."

He said Negroponte's call to Bhutto "sends a very clear message that we intend to talk to and continue our contacts with members of Pakistan's political leadership and political civil society."

Since Musharraf's emergency declaration earlier this month and until Friday, U.S. contacts with Bhutto had been handled by Anne Patterson, the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, and the consul general of the U.S. consulate in Lahore, where Bhutto had been confined to her home.

McCormack said he did not expect Negroponte to meet in person with Bhutto, explaining that "it's just a little bit easier to have a phone call, you don't have a media circus outside and you can actually have probably more relaxed conversation that way."

Negroponte arrived in Islamabad from a stop in Africa, where he said that the democratic process in Pakistan had been "derailed."

"Our message is that we want to work with the government and people of Pakistan and the political actors in Pakistan to put the political process back on track as soon as possible," Negroponte said.

In an apparent move to blunt criticism ahead of Negroponte's visit, authorities freed opposition leaders including Bhutto as well as a U.N. human rights expert and let two independent news channels back on air.

But the general also pressed on with disputed plans for January elections, swearing in an interim government led by a loyalist charged with preparing Pakistan for the vote and defending his record during the eight years since he seized power in a coup.

Opposition parties as well as the U.S. and Britain say the ballot cannot be fair unless the restrictions are ended. Demonstrations continued Friday in defiance of a ban on political gatherings.

On Thursday the top U.S. military officer said there is no sign that political unrest in Pakistan has undermined the security of that country's nuclear weapons arsenal.

"I don't see any indication right now that security of those weapons is in jeopardy, but clearly we are very watchful, as we should be," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference.

He described the military situation in Pakistan as stable and said U.S. military contacts with Pakistan have not been disrupted since Musharraf declared a state of emergency on Nov. 3.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who appeared with the Joint Chiefs chairman, declined to say whether he thought Bhutto would be more effective than Musharraf in supporting U.S. efforts against international terrorism.