President Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday called on Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to hold planned elections and to step down from the military, CNN reported.

"My message was very plain, very easy to understand: The United States wants you to have the elections as scheduled, and I want you to take the uniform off," Bush said of his telephone conversation with Musharraf earlier in the day.

On Saturday, Musharraf imposed an emergency order in the country -- suspending the constitution and arresting hundreds of human rights activists and lawyers -- in what he said was a necessary move to fight terrorism.

Sarkozy agreed that the elections must take place as scheduled.

"We need to have elections [in Pakistan] as swiftly as possible," he said. "This is a country of 150 million people, which happens to have nuclear weapons. This is very important for us that one day, we shouldn't wake up with a government, an administration in Pakistan which is in the hands of the extremists."

Responding to a reporter's question about the absence of Iraq in his speech to Congress earlier in the day, Sarkozy said he sent his foreign minister there recently to show solidarity with the Iraqi people.

"France wants a united Iraq. It's in no one's interest to see Iraq dismantled," the French president said.

Sarkozy pledged Wednesday a renewed alliance and friendship between his country and the United States.

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