CRAWFORD, Dec 30: The Bush administration on Sunday urged Pakistan to move ahead with free elections but declined to push Islamabad to hold the scheduled Jan 8 ballot after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed last week.

“We believe it is important for Pakistan to confront extremists and continue on the path to democracy by holding free and fair elections,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said in a statement.

“The timing of those elections will be up to the Pakistanis,” Stanzel said in Texas where US President George W. Bush was spending a weeklong holiday at his ranch.

Bhutto’s death has thrown the election in doubt and a senior official in Pakistan said it could be delayed for up to eight weeks.

The US State Department went somewhat further than the White House, saying if the election was delayed Pakistan should also announce a new date for the polls.

“If there is a delay in the elections, we want to make sure a new date is named. We don’t want to see an indefinite delay,” said a State Department spokesman.

But the spokesman said the naming of Bhutto’s son and her husband as the leaders of her party would help Pakistan move ahead with the polls.—Reuters