We knew Musharraf was contemplating Emergency: US

8220;8230; And we argue. that they should not take this step 8212; particularly not before any Supreme Court opinion, but also after. Because we felt that Pakistan was moving towards a more democratic future, and we were concerned that this would be a step off that path,8221; he said in a background briefing.

On suspending US aid, he said: 8220;We are looking at all of those to see if there are automatic triggers8230; that have been triggered by the actions taken that would require some kind of cut-off in assistance, because obviously we want to comply with the law.

8220;8230;There are questions about the future of our aid and assistance. But what we8217;re looking for now in the next several days, some time in the course of this week, we would hope there8217;s some clarification on the intentions of the government and we8217;ve made clear the direction on which we think they ought to proceed,8221; the official added.

However, he ruled out any tough action immediately saying that though Musharraf had made a 8220;mistake8221;, President George W Bush was keen to try to work with Islamabad to get it 8220;back on track8221; as it was important to Washington in terms of the war on terror.