US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday she was concerned about election violence in Pakistan and hoped a new government would include "moderate voices." Rice told US lawmakers she believed Pakistan's leaders understood there needed to be an election that inspired confidence, but she was concerned over violence ahead of Monday's poll.
"It is not going to easy. We all are concerned about the potential for violence. We are all concerned, of course, about the potential that at least there will be pockets where there may be problems with the elections," Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"But I think we have to keep pressing and encouraging and insisting that this is an election on which a lot is holding. They have got to inspire confidence that people got to vote freely," she said. The United States and others are increasingly uneasy at the prospect of instability in a nuclear-armed Muslim state, that is fighting militants linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.
"Once the elections are over, the key is going to be to bring about a government that can again inspire, that there are a wide range of moderate voices that have been integrated into it," said Rice, without expanding further.
Rice has made clear the Bush administration has no plans to cut back on aid, pointing to the importance of Pakistan in fighting terrorism. Washington has given Pakistan about $10 billion in aid since 2001.