US says it was aware Musharraf was contemplating emergency

WASHINGTON: Acknowledging that it was aware that President Pervez Musharraf was contemplating an emergency measure and had tried to dissuade him, the US has said it would watch the General's actions in coming days to decide the course of action, including on the fate of aid and assistance to Islamabad

"What was told to us that there were the concerns of the Pakistani government and we were advised that they were contemplating some kind of emergency measure early last week," a senior White House official said.

"And we argue. that they should not take this step, particularly not before any supreme court opinion, but also after. Because we felt that Pakistan was moving towards a more democratic future, and we were concerned that this would be a step off that path," he said in a background briefing.

On suspending US aid, he said: "We are looking at all of those to see if there are automatic triggers, that have been triggered by the actions taken that would require some kind of cut-off in assistance, because obviously we want to comply with the law.

"There are questions about the future of our aid and assistance. But what we're looking for now in the next several days, some time in the course of this week, we would hope there's some clarification on the intentions of the government and we've made clear the direction on which we think they ought to proceed," the official added.

However, he ruled out any tough action immediately saying that though Musharraf had made a 'mistake', President George W Bush was keen to try to work with Islamabad to get it 'back on track' as it was important to Washington in terms of the war on terror.