US looking forward to next Pak Govt: Negroponte

Washington, Feb 29 : US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte has said that the US was looking forward to working with the new Pakistani government.

"We are going to work with whatever government emerges from the election process," he said to a question while testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"I spoke with US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W Patterson and she predicted that the new government will be formed within the next couple of weeks, perhaps sooner," he said.

"We don't know yet what that government will be, but certainly we look forward to working with that government," Negroponte said.

"We are not in the business of recommending specific alignments ... and of course President Pervez Musharraf is still the President of his country, and we look forward to continuing work with him as well," he added.

Negroponte said there was no sympathy for violent extremists in Pakistan's body politic.

Senator Joe Biden urged the US Administration to move from "a policy focused on a personality, Musharraf, to one based on an entire country."

Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said in an interview with the National Public Radio that the US wanted to encourage all the leaders in Pakistan and not just an individual person.

Asked if he was denying that there was any push to keep Musharraf in a position of some power, Boucher said: "He's the President of Pakistan. He's in a position that has a defined constitutional role... Our job, I think, is to encourage everybody to work together with everybody else."

Asked about the threatened impeachment of Musharraf, Boucher replied, "They're talking a little differently in the last couple of days, but where they finally come out, that remains to be seen."

The US supported an independent judiciary in Pakistan, but hadn't endorsed the restoration of the particular judges because it was a political issue, the Daily Times quoted Musharraf, as saying.

ANI