WASHINGTON, Jan 24: The Pakistan Army wants the Feb 18 elections to be fair and free, says Admiral William Fallon, chief of the US Central Command, which has Pakistan in its area of responsibility.

In a meeting with American journalists, Admiral Fallon outlined his hour-long discussion with Pakistan’s new army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in Rawalpindi earlier this week.

The Washington Post on Thursday published excerpts from his statement, which quotes Admiral Fallon as saying that Pakistan’s new chief of staff “sees the army as an apolitical force” and that Mr Kayani pledged that “he wants free and open elections” on Feb 18.

In contrast with the Musharraf years, Admiral Fallon said, “I would expect the army gets a lot more attention now because the guy who’s in charge only has one job.”

He said he was ‘encouraged” that Gen Kayani “seems to understand the necessity of doing counterinsurgency.”

Admiral Fallon said he believed Gen Kayani would try to reorient the army from its focus on the external threat posed by India to greater recognition of the internal danger posed by religious extremists, especially the Al Qaeda terrorists who operate out of the Waziristan region.

“He knows that you can only do so much with military force,” Mr Fallon said. “To contain an insurgency, you need to take care of the population” through economic and social development.

The Centcom chief said the United States planned to work with Gen Kayani and the Pakistani army on new programmes that would bring more economic growth and the rule of law to the tribal areas.