US President George W. Bush said today he had spoken to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and urged him to both end the state of emergency and give up his military post.
"My message was that we believe strongly in elections and that you ought to have elections soon and you need to take off your uniform. You can't be the president and the head of the military at the same time," Mr Bush told a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Earlier today, the president of Pakistan's ruling party said Gen Musharraf is likely end the emergency rule in two to three weeks.
Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain - president of the Pakistan Muslim League, a former prime minister and member of General Musharraf's inner circle - told the Dawnnewspaper that the president understood the ramifications of failing to lift the widely criticised measure.
Officials have said national elections will still take place in January, but Gen Musharraf has not yet said when the vote will be held or when the emergency will end.
Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, in her strongest comments since Gen Musharraf assumed emergency powers on Saturday, said the world must make Pakistan's military leader revoke his measures or tell him to quit. "If he doesn't, then I believe that the international community must choose between the people of Pakistan and him," Ms Bhutto told Britain's Channel 4 News last night.
She arrived in the capital Islamabad yesterday and was due to meet leaders of smaller parties today.
She has not yet mobilized her people power on the streets, but said her party will stage a protest rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi next to Islamabad, on November 9th.
The US and Britain were joined by the European Union in urging Gen Musharraf to release all political detainees, including members of the judiciary, relax media curbs, and seek reconciliation with political opponents.