Terming the emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf [Images] counter-productive to democracy and the development of Pakistan, the US State Department has said the formal process of reviewing all forms of assistance to that country has begun.

"In this building, there have already been discussions about the review of aid. I suspect within the next couple of days, there'll be a broader discussion among various players like the Pentagon and other parts of the US government," deputy state department spokesman Tom Casey said.

"As the secretary stressed, US wants to see Musharraf honour his commitment to remove the uniform before taking the oath of office again. Pakistan should move forward with his pledge to hold elections in a free, fair and transparent basis as scheduled before January 15," he added.

"You would also really need to see the removal of these kinds of emergency measures there. The court should continue to play its role in the political process and the crackdown on independent media and on the political opposition should end," the senior state department official said.

The deputy spokesman announced that US ambassador Anne Patterson was part of a group of diplomats in Islamabad that were called by President Musharraf to hear his views on why this measure took place.

"And I'll leave it to him to discuss his rationale behind this. But suffice it to say that Ambassador Patterson, along with many of the other representatives there, made it clear US views on this subject and our disappointment with the move," Casey said.

"It's counterproductive to democracy and democracy's development in Pakistan. We have long supported the efforts which President Musharraf had undertaken to expand democratic rights and opportunities in Pakistan but now he has taken us a large step backward from that through this emergency decree," the state department official said.

On elections, the state department has once again stressed that while it would obviously be a positive step to have those elections go forward, but only if they take place under the proper conditions.

"The idea is not just to hold elections, but to hold elections that really allow for the Pakistani people to freely choose the leadership of the country. And when elections happen in a situation where there are serious restrictions on freedom of expression and on ability of others to campaign, that's not exactly the kind of election that we were hoping to see," Casey said.