Musharraf must lift emergency rule: Bush

WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush on Wednesday welcomed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's resignation as military chief, but urged him to lift emergency rule to pave the way for free and fair elections.   

"In my judgment, in order to get Pakistan back on the road to democracy, he's got to suspend the emergency law before elections," he told a TV news channel in an interview.

But Bush praised Musharraf, 64, as 'an absolute reliable partner in dealing with extremists and radicals' and welcomed his decision to bow to international pressure and quit as army chief to end eight years of military rule.

"It is something that a lot of people doubted would ever happen. And he told me he would take off his uniform, and I appreciate that, that he kept his word," said the US president. 

Musharraf will be sworn in as civilian president on Thursday, his second five-year term as leader of the nuclear-armed nation regarded as a crucial US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Top US officials have said that Washington has been in contact with Musharraf, prodding him to ensure that parliamentary elections he called for on January 8 were credible by lifting the crackdown he imposed November 3.  

Bush also said he 'hasn't changed' his view that he would send US troops into Pakistan if he had intelligence enabling a strike at Al-Qaeda terrorist chief Osama bin Laden.