resident Bush spoke for an hour with President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan yesterday morning in a conversation devoted largely to the hunt for Osama bin Laden and terror groups, administration officials said, but he made little effort to persuade General Musharraf to hold to his promise to step down as the chief of the army.

	Advertisement

Though the administration often praises General Musharraf for taking tentative steps toward democratizing Pakistan, where he seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, it does not appear to be pressing him to yield control of the country's powerful military. While the general has not said publicly that he plans to retain his title, he warned in an interview with The New York Times on Monday that giving up his military role might end the "renaissance'' based on the gradually expanding democracy that Pakistan was enjoying under his leadership.

Asked yesterday if the United States was turning a blind eye to General Musharraf's efforts to retain his military post in return for his continued efforts to root out Al Qaeda and Taliban forces, a senior administration official said, "We don't give him a free pass.''

President Bush told General Musharraf that it was "important to stay on the road'' to democratic reform, and the general knew what that meant, the official said. Other officials said that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had discussed with General Musharraf directly whether he would be stepping down as army chief. In the past, Mr. Powell has said he enjoys blunt "general to general'' talks with the Pakistani. But after a series of statements from Musharraf appointees suggesting he should retain military power - a clear sign that he is preparing his country for an announcement that he will do so - the fact that Mr. Bush did not condemn the idea outright might be interpreted in Islamabad as a signal he could now move forward without fear of a breach with Washington.

In yesterday's session, according to a senior administration official who attended it, Mr. Bush also made no effort to persuade General Musharraf to let American officials interview Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of Pakistan's nuclear program. The official said that the United States was satisfied for now that Pakistan was passing on what details it gleaned from Dr. Khan about the secret nuclear network that he had built and that supplied technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

But other American intelligence officials have said they suspect that Pakistan is withholding information that may embarrass it, or that it is no longer intensively pressing the scientist, whom General Musharraf pardoned early this year.

In the Monday interview, General Musharraf said that the United States had never asked to question Dr. Khan. But if the administration did make the request, he said, "we wouldn't let them'' because "that would show a lack of trust in ourselves,'' adding, "I mean, we must trust our own agencies.''

The Central Intelligence Agency does not appear to share that trust, suspecting that parts of the Pakistani intelligence service and the military aided Dr. Khan in shipping his nuclear wares around the world. Intelligence agents point to the fact that military aircraft are believed to have made some of the shipments to North Korea. One intelligence official, clearly frustrated, said last week that "the administration has had to weigh its priorities, and it is clear to us that pursuing Al Qaeda is a higher priority now than squeezing out'' every detail of the Khan network. A senior White House official disputed that view, saying the two goals were "not incompatible.''

The question of General Musharraf's future is a delicate one for the Bush administration. Mr. Bush praises the Pakistani leader at every opportunity as a close ally, pointing to his decision in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks to help the American effort against the Taliban and to root out Al Qaeda elements in his country. On the campaign trail, Mr. Bush cites Pakistan's turnaround as one of the biggest foreign policy achievements of his presidency.

But that has meant embracing a man who took power in a coup, though a bloodless one. American officials say it is not clear that any of the general's political opponents would move more quickly to democracy, and they have obviously made a pragmatic decision to back General Musharraf.

The administration also believes that the general needs the maximum latitude to battle Al Qaeda. "This is a guy who nearly got blown up twice last year,'' a senior White House official said, referring to assassination attempts against the Pakistani leader. "You can understand why he is sensitive about military control.''

General Musharraf and Mr. Bush discussed Mr. bin Laden, according to an official who briefed reporters afterward, an interesting acknowledgment because Mr. Bush no longer speaks of Mr. bin Laden in public. Asked if Mr. bin Laden was believed to be in the area near Afghanistan where General Musharraf said his military had suffered more than 900 casualties recently, the official said it was very possible. "They talked about the series of terrorist leaders who threaten both Pakistan, the United States and most of the neighborhood,'' the official said.

Subscribe Today: Home Delivery of The Times from $2.90/wk.