On Saturday morning, US envoy John Negroponte met President Pervez Musharraf in order to convince him to revoke the emergency rule imposed earlier this month and make peace with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Negroponte was due to reiterate Washington's demand for a swift end to the emergency, which Musharraf, a key US counter-terrorism ally, says is needed to curb rising militant violence.

Negroponte was also expected to relay the US call for Musharraf to shed his uniform before embarking on a further term.

Despite a longstanding enmity between Musharaff and Bhutto, Washington has looked to a possible alliance to help stabilize Pakistan and halt the steady advance of Islamic extremism from the direction of Afghanistan.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton confirmed the meeting, but she didn’t provide any details.

Negroponte already spoke by phone with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the highest-level U.S. contact with the former prime minister since Musharraf imposed a state of emergency November 3.

"He wanted to hear from her how she viewed the political situation in Pakistan," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said

Yesterday President Pervez Musharraf installed a caretaker government under an interim prime minister, Mohammedmian Soomro, to ease the way to parliamentary elections, but the step only stiffened opposition criticism of the current state of emergency.

"Pakistan has never seen such a smooth transition of government," Musharraf said at the ceremony in Islamabad. "I have introduced the essence of democracy, whether anyone believes it or not," he added amid reports of fresh clashes across the country between police and activists.

But following her recent house arrest and the detention of thousands of her supporters, Bhutto says she can no longer trust Musharraf and now demands his resignation.

"We do not accept this (caretaker) government. It has committed treason by taking oath under Provincial Constitutional Order (PCO)," Bhutto told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore Friday after she was freed from three days of confinement.