WASHINGTON, May 1: The United States on Wednesday maintained its earlier ambivalent attitude on the Pakistani referendum, saying it remained focused on the October elections promised by Gen Pervez Musharraf and Washington’s primary interest was in seeing Pakistan return to full democracy.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said at his regular afternoon briefing that the US had seen the figures released about the polling and the voter turnout in the referendum, but there really was no means of independent verification of the figures.

America’s primary interest, he said, was to see a return to full democratic governance, and in this connection the elections scheduled for October were seen as a most crucial step.

Asked whether the referendum result conferred legitimacy on Gen Musharraf, Mr Boucher said: “He is who he is”, but again drew attention to the general’s promise to hold elections in October and remain on that path.