NEW YORK, Sept 21: US President George W. Bush should urge President Gen Pervez Musharraf to keep his promise to step down as army chief by the end of the year and fully restore civilian rule, the Human Rights Watch said Monday.

The two leaders are scheduled to meet on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly session. The Human Rights Watch also urged Gen Musharraf to tell President Bush that it was time for the United States to investigate torture, murder and other abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and other US military detention facilities.

Human Rights Watch said that only an independent 9/11-style commission would be able to shed full light on US treatment of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

"The United States has still not authorized an independent investigation into either the abuses at Abu Ghraib or the many alleged cases of death or torture in US custody in Afghanistan," said HRW director Brad Adams.