WASHINGTON, Nov 16: US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte has telephoned PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto to convey the message that the United States wants to continue its contacts with Pakistani opposition leaders, according to the State Department.

Mr Negroponte, who arrived in Islamabad on Friday, telephoned Ms Bhutto after a meeting with National Security adviser Tariq Aziz.

Besides consulting the US ambassador in Islamabad, Anne Patterson, Mr Negroponte also met at least one foreign ambassador “to get a sense of his read on the situation there,” the State Department said.

Mr Aziz played a key role in arranging a power-sharing deal between Ms Bhutto and President Musharraf and held several meetings with her in London before she returned to Pakistan last month.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing in Washington that Mr Negroponte’s meeting with Ms Bhutto “does send a very clear message that we intend to talk to and continue our contacts with members of Pakistani political leadership and political civil society.”

Asked if the telephone call was planned to send this signal to Gen Musharraf, Mr McCormack said: “Regardless of whether that was a calculation going in – and I don’t know; I haven’t talked to him (Mr Negroponte) about that – I think it does send a very clear message.”

The US, he said, needed to be able to communicate with the individuals, “to get our point of view across and to urge and to counsel. But, ultimately, what is the most important is that they all talk with one another and work together on behalf of the Pakistani people.”

Mr Negroponte reiterated “the importance of moderate forces working together in Pakistan” when he spoke with Ms Bhutto, the spokesman said.

The US emphasis on getting together moderate forces, he said, was “for a better future for Pakistan and also to get Pakistan back on the pathway to constitutional rule.”