Bush 'Taken Aback' by Musharraf Comment

President Bush holds a joint press conference with Pakistan President GEn. Pervez Musharraf, Friday, Sept. 22, 2006, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. President Bush met Friday with Musharraf, who has claimed a U.S. official threatened an attack on his Muslim nation if it did not cooperate in the war on terror. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) (Ron Edmonds - AP)

Meanwhile, Musharraf reported progress toward resolving the dispute between India and Pakistan over the shared Himalayan region of Kashmir. The Pakistani leader cited progress in recent talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"We are moving on the Kashmir dispute," Musharraf said.

Bush seemed pleased. "I'm impressed by this president's will to get something done in Kashmir," he said.

Pressed on how the U.S. might help, Bush said: "The Kashmir issue will be solved when two leaders decide to solve it, and we want to help. The United States can't force nations to reach an agreement just because we want there to be an agreement."

Earlier Friday, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said he didn't know the specifics of what Armitage might have said to the Pakistanis.

"But we have made very clear that we went straight to President Musharraf in the days after 9/11 and said it's time to make a choice: Are you going to side with the civilized world or are you going to side with the Taliban and al-Qaida," Bartlett told CBS' "The Early Show."

White House press secretary Tony Snow that he didn't know what Armitage said. Armitage no longer is in the administration.

"Mr. Armitage has said that he made no such representations," Snow said. "I don't know. This could have been a classic failure to communicate. I just don't know."

"U.S. policy was not to issue bombing threats," Snow said. "U.S. policy was to say to President Musharraf, `We need you to make a choice'."

In his meeting with Musharraf, Bush played middle man in a thorny foreign policy problem that has bubbled up between Islamabad and Afghanistan _ two U.S. allies in the war on terrorism who accuse each other of not doing enough to crack down on extremists.

Afghan officials have alleged repeatedly that Taliban militants are hiding out in neighboring Pakistan and launching attacks across the border into Afghanistan. Pakistan, which has deployed 80,000 troops along the border, rejects the accusation and says it's doing all it can to battle extremists.

During Musharraf's visit, human rights activists are asking Bush to press Musharraf to restore civilian rule in Pakistan, end discrimination of women, and stop using torture and arbitrary detention in counterterrorism operations. Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup. Instead of giving up his military uniform in 2004 as promised, he changed the constitution so he could hold both his army post and the presidency until 2007.

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On the Net:

White House: http://whitehouse.gov

CIA World Factbook on Pakistan:

https:// http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pk.html