US urges Pak leaders to explore political deal

Washington, Aug 16: The United States has urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, whose popularity has eroded since his failed effort to remove the country's chief justice, to explore some kind of political arrangement with opposition politicians, a US official said today.

''There are elections coming up in Pakistan and there is a moderate center in Pakistani politics and that moderate center has an interest in seeing the political and social reforms that Musharraf put in place continue,'' said the official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The official was commenting on a New York Times report that the Bush administration is quietly encouraging Musharraf to share power with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, citing citing US and Pakistani officials.

The US official who spoke on condition of anonymity declined to say whether the Bush administration was encouraging a Bhutto-Musharraf deal but made clear that it wanted to see ''moderate'' forces in Pakistan strengthened.

Asked if the United States risked appearing to prop up a military ruler who seized power in a bloodless 1999 coup but is regarded as a vital ally by the Bush administration, the official said any deal was up to the Pakistanis to work out.

''These are political arrangements that are going to either happen or not happen based on the interests and desires of the Pakistani parties,'' he said. ''We can encourage parties to look at where there are overlapping interests. Any decisions are going to be made by the (Pakistani) parties involved.'' In a sign of US concern about Pakistan, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is likely to visit Pakistan in September, the US official said.

The New York Times said US officials believe an alliance with Bhutto could give Musharraf his best chance of defusing the domestic crisis and remaining as president, citing officials who asked not be identified.

The newspaper quoted State Department Sean McCormack as saying: ''We have met with all parties and have expressed our support for open and fair elections. We have encouraged the parties to strengthen the moderate center of Pakistani politics in order to better deal with the problems of extremism.'' Bush administration officials have said they fear that Musharraf could eventually be toppled and replaced by someone who might be less a less reliable US ally against terrorism, the Times said.

Musharraf has been dealing with a wave of militant attacks and public unrest over his attempt to dismiss Pakistan's top judge.

U.S. and Pakistani officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the idea of a power-sharing arrangement when she called Musharraf last week to warn him not to declare emergency powers, the newspaper reported.

The report also said Bhutto had been holding talks in recent weeks with senior Bush administration officials, including UN Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

US officials say the complexity of Pakistani politics makes it difficult to predict what shape a political deal could take, the Times reported.

Reuters>