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WASHINGTON : The United States said Tuesday it has begun studying whether to suspend any of its multi-billion-dollar aid programme to Pakistan as it again pressed President Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule.
"People started work on it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, referring to the review that had been promised since Musharraf declared emergency rule in his country on Saturday.
The review involving the State Department and other government agencies as well as the White House would look at whether Pakistan had violated any US laws or rules that would require Washington to suspend aid, he said.
US officials said Washington has contributed US$9.6 billion in military and economic development aid to Pakistan since it became a key US ally in the US war against terrorism following the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Another US$780 million is due this year.
McCormack said the US government had to weigh its legal obligations against ensuring that it continued to bolster Pakistan in its battles against Islamist militants hiding along its border with Afghanistan.
"I don't think anybody expects that the president or the government is going to take a step that might make the United States less safe or might diminish our capabilities to fight terror," McCormack said.
"That said, there are potentially certain requirements under the law. We're going to look at what is required and what is triggered by the law," he said.
McCormack said the US aim was to press nuclear-armed Pakistan to resume its path toward democracy in the interest of Pakistanis, their neighbours and the world at large.
He added that "robust democratic institutions" will in the long term "be Pakistan's best defence against the violent extremists..."
The White House meanwhile expressed broad support for "freedom of expression" and assembly in Pakistan but stopped well short of encouraging demonstrations against Musharraf.
And leading US lawmakers upped the ante.
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday he had a "frank" telephone conversation with Musharraf.
"I told President Musharraf how critical it is for relations between our two countries that elections go forward as planned in January, that he follow through on his commitment to take off his uniform and that he restore the rule of law to Pakistan," he said in a statement.
"It is clear to me from our conversation that President Musharraf understands the consequences for his country and for relations with the United States if he does not return Pakistan to the path of democracy," he added.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who oversees aid to Pakistan as chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, said Washington should have supported the "moderate majority" rather than Musharraf, who has not fulfilled pledges on democracy since seizing power in a 1999 coup.
"The United States will continue its support to the Pakistani people," Leahy said in a statement posted on his website on Monday.
"But US aid to the Musharraf government should stop until constitutional order, civil liberties and judicial independence are restored, until political prisoners are released, and until free and fair elections are allowed," he said. - AFP/ch
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