Washington: The Bush administration has said it continues to support embattled President Pervez Musharraf, whose allies were routed in Pakistan s general election, while maintaining that Washington has no role in the formation of a new government in Islamabad.

"It will be up to the people of Pakistan to see what their new government will look like. But the president (George Bush) does certainly support him (Musharraf) and has continued to," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said yesterday.

"The President does support President Musharraf for all of the work that he s done to help us in counterterrorism. And if you look at what we asked President Musharraf to do, which is to take off the uniform, to set free and fair elections, and to lift the emergency order, he did all of those things."

At the State Department, Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said Washington wants to see the formation of a government that is going to be an effective partner for the US, while adding that the components of the new regime will be entirely decided by the people of Pakistan.

"Ultimately, what we want to see happen is the formation of a government that s going to be an effective partner for the US, not only in confronting extremism, but also in helping Pakistan achieve the broad-based goals for that country s political and economic development," Casey said.

"In terms of the specifics of how that s done, of how winds up in a coalition, who winds up in which ministry, what happens in terms of judicial reform or in terms of judicial appointments, those are really matters for the Pakistanis themselves and for the new government to decide," he added.

"What we want to see is a government that s working effectively to be able to meet the challenges that are there, but we re not trying to offer specific advice to them on how to deal with some of these internal questions," Casey said.

Source : PTI