The US has emphatically said that elections in Pakistan cannot be considered free and fair if held under emergency rule.

White House press secretary Dana Perino was asked to respond to an interview that the President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf [Images] had given in which he said that emergency rule was likely to continue through the January elections.

"This is a question that I've answered several times from reporters in this room and while we were on the road in Texas. What we have said is that we want there to be free and fair elections, we want the president to take off his uniform, which, again, he announced today that he would do that by the end of November," Perino said.

"We don't see how it is possible to have free and fair elections under emergency rule. You want to have emergency rule lifted so that people can protest peacefully or that they can campaign and so that a free media can cover the elections, as we do here," Perino said.

"And so we are urging Pakistan to return to its Constitution, allow free and fair elections, and re-establish the foothold they had on democracy before the emergency order was put in place," Perino said in her briefing.

She said there have been some positive signs like the president (Musharraf) had said that there would be elections.

"He did say he would take off the uniform. He did say the emergency order would be lifted. He just has not said when. And we continue to work with Pakistan. We want to have a long-term relationship with this country. In the past, we have waffled on that, and it did not serve us well," the senior White House official said.

The US needs to help work with Pakistan to unite moderate forces so that they can have the democracy that they had started to have over the last several years, the White House spokeswoman added.

"We have called for there to be an end to emergency rule and a return to the Constitution. And that -- his announcement today doesn't change that," she replied but parried on whether the Bush administration will support moves of the supporters of the former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto [Images] and Nawaz Sharif to get together against Musharraf.

The White House official was asked if it is a major setback to the administration that Bhutto has now said that she will not work with Musharraf.

"I think that the situation evolves by the hour, as you've been covering it over the last 10 days, since the state of emergency has been put in place. We would hope that people would be able to work together in Pakistan. We'll just have to wait and see.

The situation on the ground is evolving very rapidly. We are hopeful that they can return to the Constitution and the path of democracy that they were on," Perino said.