"To see the U.S. stick it out on the wrong side of the fence will not win the latter any approval with the people of Pakistan," Dawn said in an editorial on Monday.
Negroponte said reconciliation was "very desirable" between moderate political forces, apparently referring to the breakdown of an understanding between Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto for possible post-election power sharing.
U.S. Ambassador Anne W. Patterson was in Karachi on Monday to meet Bhutto, who spoke to Negroponte by telephone during his visit to Islamabad.
"I am meeting the former prime minister and other political leaders to confirm American interest in free, fair and transparent elections and to assure her and all others that we will do everything possible to ensure that the electoral process takes place," Patterson told journalists at Bhutto's residence.
Bhutto said she had reiterated her concerns that polls under present conditions would not be fair.
Pakistan has received an estimated $10 billion (4.88 billion pounds) of U.S. aid, mostly for its military, since joining a war on terrorism in late 2001.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that almost $100 million had been earmarked for a secret programme to help Musharraf keep his nuclear arsenal secure in a country threatened by rampant militancy.
FRONTIER FRAYING
Musharraf said emergency rule would remain in place for longer to reinforce the fight against Islamist militants threatening Pakistan's stability and ensure security for polls.
However, opposition leaders, including Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister ousted by Musharraf in 1999 and later sent into exile, are considering boycotting the elections.
Meantime, the Pakistan army was expected to launch a major operation to crush a militant movement in Swat, a valley in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) where hundreds of people have been killed in clashes with security forces in the past few weeks.
Around 80 people were killed in an outbreak of sectarian violence over the weekend in Parachinar, the main town in the Kurram tribal agency bordering Afghanistan, as the security situation in the frontier region continued to deteriorate.
Parachinar has a history of clashes between Sunni Muslim tribesmen sympathetic with al Qaeda and Shi'ite Muslims, less friendly to the presence of Osama bin Laden's followers in their lands.
The army was taking control in Parachinar on Monday, while in Swat there was no sign of an operation, according to reporters in both areas.
