Washington: The US has favoured continued democratic developments in Pakistan and said President Pervez Musharraf should follow through his 'commitments' on retention of the uniform prior to elections in the country.

"He has made certain commitments in this regard and we think it's important that he follow through on those commitments," US State Department Spokesman McCormack said yesterday when asked whether Musharraf should leave the post of Army Chief by the end of the year.

"We encourage the continued democratic development of Pakistan. They are a close friend and a close ally in the war on terror. We believe that President Musharraf has made a commitment to change Pakistan, and we think that that is a positive thing," McCormack said.

"We're not going to dictate to him or anybody else, to the Pakistani people exactly what those changes are going to be or specific steps that they might need to take," he added.

Pakistan once again figured in the State Department briefing with McCormack asked about the ongoing developments in that country and if Washington was "dismayed" if a top judicial officer of the country resign citing the crisis.

"That's an individual decision of conscience that somebody wants to take. Clearly, he has differences with the course of action. I know that President Musharraf has himself said that this might have been handled differently and that the issue is now before the high council -the senior panel of judges to be resolved and that Musharraf would abide by the decisions of that senior judicial council," he said.

"We have stated before that it is important that whatever the resolution of this issue may be, that it takes place within the confines of Pakistani law," McCormack said.