WASHINGTON, July 6: A senior US official has said that the extremists are as much a threat to President General Pervez Musharraf as they are to others in the region or to the US.

“He is as much under threat from violent extremism as we or any of Pakistan's neighbours might be,” State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing in Washington.

The US official also condemned using innocent people as ‘human shields’ to evade a military raid and said “it is not a civilized behaviour.’

Asked if the US administration was worried about President Musharraf’s ability to hold on to power, Mr McCormack said: “I’m not sure that that would be our assessment.”

He said that Gen Musharraf had taken a lot of steps to try to address the threat of terrorism, open up the Pakistani political system and to implement economic reforms. “There’s still a lot more to do in that regard. But we support him in those efforts,” he said.

During the briefing the official often used the title general instead of president while talking about the Pakistani ruler and when a reporter asked him if he was doing so on purpose, the spokesman said he meant to call him President Musharraf.

He said the threat from extremism in Pakistan had been around for some time.