The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan's government will hold elections in February and lift the state of emergency imposed by President Pervez Musharraf within one or two months, his attorney general said Thursday.

The statement came after US President George W. Bush telephoned Musharraf for the first time since Saturday's declaration of emergency rule to urge him to keep to January's original election timetable and quit as army chief.

"Elections will be held in February, it has been decided," attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum, the government's chief lawyer, told AFP.

"The emergency will be lifted in one or two months."

The military ruler is also under pressure from ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, who has pledged to rally supporters in Rawalpindi on Friday and stage a "long march" next week if he does not restore the constitution and hold polls.

Officials had warned that the vote, seen as the key step in nuclear-armed Pakistan's transition to civilian democracy, could be delayed by up to a year, although the government said it wanted them held as soon as possible.

Musharraf imposed the state of emergency citing growing Islamic militancy and an interfereing judiciary. He suspended the constitution, sacked the chief justice and clamped curbs on the media.

Meanwhile police warned that suicide bombers had infiltrated Rawalpindi, a garrison town near Islamabad that has been hit by several recent blasts, ahead of Bhutto's protest. "We have very specific intelligence reports that up to eight suicide bombers have entered Rawalpindi," city police chief Saud Aziz told AFP.

"Naturally they will target big public meetings like what you have seen in Karachi," he added.

Twin suicide bombings killed 139 people in Karachi at Bhutto's October 18 homecoming parade after eight years in self-exile.