WASHINGTON, Nov 19: The White House said on Monday that President George W. Bush would like to see the emergency rule in Pakistan lifted immediately. The White House also said that Mr Bush’s first official engagement at seven this morning was with Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte who briefed him on his meeting with President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Negroponte visited Islamabad this weekend with a message from Mr Bush, asking the Pakistani leader to lift the state of emergency he imposed on Nov 3. Gen Musharraf refused to do so.

“I don’t have a date to give you,” said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino when asked if Mr Bush will allow this emergency situation to go on before taking some kind of action.

“I can tell you that the President is urging the lifting of the emergency order immediately, and the release of people who have been detained who were trying to express their views,” she added.

At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that the United States had invested in Pakistan and its people rather than in Gen Musharraf.

Asked if Mr Bush made a mistake in investing so much in Gen Musharraf and would he now like to see another person leading Pakistan, Mr McCormack said the United States had not invested in any individual. “But we have an investment in the relationship with Pakistan and the Pakistani people,” he said, adding that “we continue to provide advice and counsel from the position of friendship”.

The spokesman said that President Musharraf was “a good friend and ally” but who leads Pakistan “ultimately is going to be a decision for Pakistan and the Pakistani people. We don’t pick and choose who leads Pakistan.”

Mr McCormack said the United States was opposing the state of emergency because it believed “the results in part from these actions were not in our interests”.

At the White House, Ms Perino said in diplomatic efforts like the one Mr Negroponte undertook there’re no immediate results. “So we are going to continue to have an open line of communication and dialogue. Deputy Secretary Negroponte said that he delivered a very clear message, and we’ll have to continue to monitor the situation as it evolves, to see what happens next,” she added.

Ms Perino welcomed Gen Musharraf’s assurances that the elections would be held on time and he would remove his uniform as promised as good steps. But “we remain concerned that there has not been a lifting of the emergency order that he put in place a little over two weeks ago,” she added.