Pakistani national elections will take place before February 15, President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday, after western allies and his political opponents had demanded polls to be held on time.

Pakistan had been scheduled to hold elections by mid-January until the military ruler imposed emergency rule on Saturday and suspended the constitution to the horror of the international community.

Musharraf?s announcement came just hours after US President George W. Bush called him personally for the first time since he imposed the emergency rule, urging him to hold elections and quit as army chief.

Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto?s party said yesterday that police had arrested thousands of its activists overnight. Police had already detained hundreds of lawyers and other opposition figures and supporters the imposition of the emergency rule and the suspension of the constitution .

?They have raided homes of our activists across Punjab throughout the night. The number of people arrested is now in the thousands,? said Farzana Raja, a party spokeswoman in the Punjab province.

Aftab Cheema, a senior police officer in Lahore, confirmed that 150 PPP activists had been picked up in the provincial capital and similar action was being taken elsewhere in Punjab.

Bhutto?s Pakistan People?s Party plans to hold a public meeting in Rawalpindi, adjoining the capital Islamabad, today to protest over emergency rule. Bhutto has threatened a mass motorcade from Lahore on November 13 unless Musharraf backs down. Police have warned the party that rallies are banned.

?All kind of rallies have been banned because we have reports from intelligence agencies that 7 to 8 suicide bombers have sneaked into Punjab,? Saud Aziz, Rawalpindi police chief, told Reuters.

?We don?t want a repeat of the Karachi incident,? he said, referring to a suicide attack last month in the southern city during a procession to mark Bhutto?s homecoming after eight years of self-imposed exile. At least 139 people were killed.

The Karachi stock market fell 1.8 percent by early afternoon yesterday as Bhutto?s protest threat stoked uncertainty.

The United States had hoped Bhutto would share power with Musharraf after elections due in January, but the imposition of the emergency left US policy toward Pakistan in disarray, as Musharraf has been a valued asset in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

?I had a very frank discussion with him,? Bush said of Musharraf.

?My message was that we believe strongly in elections and that you ought to have elections soon and you need to take off your uniform. You can?t be the president and the head of the military at the same time,? Bush told a news conference.

The Pakistani government gave its own account of the call. ?President Bush showed understanding when the president informed him about the difficult circumstances that led to the proclamation of emergency in the country,? the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

?President Bush praised President Musharraf?s leadership and Pakistan?s critical role in fighting terrorism and extremism,? it added, saying that Musharraf in any case planned to return to democratic rule and hold early elections.

Washington has also said it will review aid to Pakistan, which has totalled nearly $10 billion since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

A senior Pentagon general said the US military was worried about the security of Pakistan?s nuclear weapons after the imposition of emergency rule. ?Any time there is a nation that has nuclear weapons that has experienced a situation such as Pakistan is at present, that is a primary concern,? Lieutenant General Carter Ham, director of operations for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters.

Musharraf?s main motive in imposing emergency rule and suspending the constitution appears to have been the removal of judges viewed as hostile to the government, analysts say.

Ousted chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is being held incommunicado at his residence in Islamabad. The Supreme Court had been hearing challenges to the legality of Musharraf?s October 6 re-election by parliament while still army chief. Fears the decision could have gone against the general were believed to have been the main reason for his move.

The United States and Britain were joined by the 27-nation European Union in urging Musharraf to release all political detainees, including members of the judiciary, relax media curbs, and seek reconciliation with political opponents.