But Democratic and Republican runners said the US administration should still be pressing Musharraf for tougher anti-terror action, and free elections, following last week's assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

"I'm not calling for him to step down," Democrat Hillary Clinton told ABC television, as Bhutto's murder revived debate about candidates' foreign-policy credentials just before Iowa kicks off the 2008 White House race on Thursday.

"I'm calling for him, number one, to agree with an independent investigation of Benazir Bhutto's death. I am calling on him to hold free and fair elections with independent monitors," the senator and former first lady said.

Clinton's interview was taped before Bhutto's 19-year-old son Bilawal was chosen Sunday to assume the mantle of her party, which said it would take part in elections on January 8 despite unrest triggered by the assassination.

Clinton stressed: "This is an opportunity for President Musharraf to step up and actually fulfill many of the words and promises that he's made to me and to many others over the course of a number of years."

Democratic challenger Barack Obama denied making political hay out of Bhutto's murder, after arguing that Clinton's vote in 2002 for the Iraq war had stoked unrest in Pakistan by distracting US attention from Afghanistan.

"What I do believe is that if we are going to take seriously the problem of Islamic terrorism, and the stability of Pakistan, then we have to look at it in a wider context," he said on NBC.

Obama said the US administration's hefty financial support for its "war on terror" ally should not translate into a "blank check" for Musharraf, and urged the Pakistani leader to earn greater legitimacy through open elections.

Republican hopeful John McCain, a Vietnam war hero and foreign-policy veteran, said Musharraf was "important" to Pakistan's future and echoed Clinton in asking "who will take his place?"

Senator McCain said he was "disappointed" that under Musharraf, parts of northwest Pakistan had become "a safe haven for Taliban."

But the president can still "play a key and pivotal role" in moving Pakistan back towards democracy, he said on ABC.

Senate foreign relations committee chairman Joseph Biden told CNN he had no confidence in Musharraf, and insisted that President George W. Bush should re-orient US policy away from the general-turned-politician.

Biden, a long shot in the Democratic White House race, called on Bush to make "clear to him that failure to have transparent elections in this month (January) is going to be extremely consequential for him and for the army."

Biden also demanded a foreign-backed "transparent investigation as to the cause and who's responsible for Benazir's assassination."

Unrest in Pakistan has been fueled by the government's claim that she smashed her head on her car sunroof during an Al-Qaeda suicide attack, rather than being shot to death.

Elsewhere on the US campaign trail, the Bhutto crisis appears to have exposed the foreign-policy paucity of surprise Republican success story Mike Huckabee.

The former Arkansas governor defended his remarks immediately after her assassination that the United States should secure its southern border against a potential influx of illegal Pakistani immigrants.

Speaking on NBC, Huckabee added that "Musharraf, despite some of the concerns we have about him, represents at least some level of security" and that it was not in US interests "to try to get rid of him."

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