Musharraf rules out Pakistan emergency over attacks

ISLAMABAD, July 18 (Reuters) Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf today ruled out declaring an emergency amid a rising tide of militant attacks that have killed more than 130 people this month, officials said.

In the latest violence, militants killed 17 soldiers in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border a day after a suicide bomber killed 16 people in the capital, Islamabad.

Violence has spiralled since government forces stormed Islamabad's Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, compound last week, ending a week-long siege and killing 75 supporters of hardline clerics.

At the same time as militants are believed to be exacting revenge for the mosque assault, pro-Taliban fighters in North Waziristan have vowed to attack security forces after abandoning a ten-month peace pact.

Army chief Musharraf, an important US ally, has for months ruled out an emergency to stifle a campaign against his rule by lawyers angry about Musharraf's move to dismiss the chief justice, and by the opposition demanding full democracy.

He again today ruled out an emergency saying he firmly believed ''the solution lies in the democratic process''.

''We are in direct confrontation with the extremist forces - moderates versus extremists,'' the state news agency quoted him telling newspaper editors.

Pakistan's main stock index fell more than 3 per cent because of the escalating violence, dealers said.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto -- referring to the violence - yesterday said she believed ''hidden hands'' were trying to create a pretext for Musharraf to impose an emergency.

An emergency would mean the postponement of elections due around the end of the year. Musharraf has repeatedly said elections, including a bid by him for a second term, would be on time.

AMBUSH The seventeen soldiers were killed in an ambush while on patrol in the Datta Khel area, 40 km west of the region's main town, Miranshah. Several militants were killed in fighting that followed the ambush, a military official said.

Separately, five militants were killed when they tried to ambush a convoy east of Miranshah, a military official said.

Well over 100 people, most of them police and soldiers, have been killed in suicide blasts and shootings in the northwest of the country this month.

The surge in violence on the Pakistani side of the border comes as Britain's parliament said there were worrying signs the Taliban were growing stronger in Afghanistan.

Attacks in the Pakistani capital have been rare but the city police chief told reporters late yesterday he had got information suicide bombers had entered the capital.

Islamabad police stepped up security as the death toll rose to 16 from last evening's attack outside a court where the country's suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Chaudhry, had been due to speak to lawyers. More than 60 people were wounded.

Chaudhry, who has become a symbol of opposition to President Pervez Musharraf's eight-year rule, had not arrived at the venue at the time of the blast. Musharraf suspended Chaudhry on March 9 after accusing him of misconduct.

The Islamabad blast went off close to a stall put up by Bhutto's opposition Pakistan People's Party.

One lawyer with the chief justice said he believed the blast was part of the backlash against the Lal Masjid assault and was aimed at Bhutto's party because she had voiced support for the action against the militants.

But another lawyer close to Chaudhry said he believed the chief justice had been targeted by state intelligence agencies.

REUTERS SM PM1725