U.S. backs Musharraf to deliver free and fair elections - Musharraf is the only one running

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http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/U_S_backs_Musharraf_to_deliver_free_and_fair_elections.html?siteSect=143&sid=7932450&cKey=1182012810000

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials offered broad support to an embattled President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday, while exhorting him to ensure that elections due this year in Pakistan were free and fair.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Pakistan's top military brass against the backdrop of a brewing political crisis over the president's move to sack the country's top judge.

Negroponte said he had been encouraged by senior Pakistani officials to come to Islamabad and he noted the importance of the long-term, strategic relationship with nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key ally in the fight against al Qaeda and a Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

He was accompanied by Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher. Admiral William J. Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, met General Musharraf later on Saturday.

Analysts believe Musharraf's attempt to oust Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was motivated by fear that the judge would allow constitutional challenges if he sought a re-election, while still army chief, from the current national and provincial assemblies before their dissolution for elections due by the turn of the year.

Under the constitution, Musharraf, who came to power in a coup almost eight years ago, should quit as army chief by the end of 2007, but many Pakistanis doubt his intentions.