"In Pakistan what we have called for is for people to be able to meet, to assemble, to express themselves, to be able to express themselves in a free and fair media that we've asked for, so that they can have a robust and vigorous debate before the campaign and before the elections on January 8th," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

"And we hope that everybody will be able to do that and we urge everyone to do that without any violence," she said.

At the State Department, the issue of Pakistan figured briefly with its spokesman Sean McCormack refusing to even answer the question of whether Secretary of State Condoleezzaa Rice is pressing President Pervez Musharraf to lift the Emergency as soon as possible for a normal life in Pakistan.