WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan’s military ruler, Sunday to lift the state of emergency as soon as possible, expressing concern Gen. Pervez Musharraf has not said when he would restore citizens’ rights.

At the same time, Rice said it was a positive sign that Musharraf now has pledged to hold parliamentary elections by mid-January. There had been concerns voting could be delayed by as much as a year in the wake of his declaration last weekend that he was suspending the constitution.

Two Democratic presidential candidates gave a harsh assessment of Musharraf’s refusal to end emergency rule, but Rice refused to criticize Musharraf by name.

“It’s not a perfect situation and nobody would suggest that it is,” Rice said. Pakistan has come far, she said, since Musharraf came to power in a coup in 1999 and since 2001, when he pledged his country’s help in pursuing terrorists. “The key is to take this in steps.”

“We believe that at a time like this, our best role is to counsel and indeed persuade that Pakistan has got to get back on the democratic path that it had established,” she said.

“Obviously, we are also encouraging that the state of emergency has got to be lifted, and lifted as soon as possible,” she added.

She said the role of the United States should be to persuade Pakistan to return to democracy and civilian rule. Asked about whether it was time for Musharraf to step down, Rice said the focus should be on holding free and fair elections.

“It’s very easy to speculate and to make snap judgments in a difficult time like this,” Rice said. If Musharraf “carries through on his obligations that he’s made to us and that he’s made to his own people,” the road to democracy “will be re-established.”

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said elections would be a “sham” without an end to the state of emergency.

Unless he takes that step, “I think there is not much hope for there to be the kind of accommodation and power sharing that everybody hopes will occur,” said Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate.

Democratic rival Bill Richardson, U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration, said “you can’t have democracy halfway.”

“Yes, he said he’s going to have elections … He still has a crackdown, martial law,” said Richardson, the New Mexico governor.

“I am extremely concerned that we are associating ourselves with a dictatorship that is basically just revamping the entire constitutional system to keep its purposes of being in power,” he said.

A GOP White House hopeful, Arizona Sen. John McCain, said that as president, “I would be doing intensive behind-the-scenes negotiations, and I would do my best to convince Musharraf that the best thing for him, as well as the future of Pakistan, is to go ahead and schedule these elections.”

McCain said he would not threaten to cut off all U.S. aid to Pakistan because “if you play that last card and it doesn’t work, then obviously you have no leverage whatsoever.”