Islamabad, Pakistan ? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday brought the Bush administration’s push for democracy to Pakistan, where Gen. Pervez Musharraf has been a welcome ally against Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network but has proved hesitant to surrender power he took in a coup in 1999.

In a brief recap of a three-hour meeting between Rice and Musharraf, which included dinner, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Rice “expressed our firm support for steady movement along a path to free and fair elections in 2007.”

He offered no information on what assurances, if any, Musharraf had given Rice about a transition to democracy. In December, Musharraf announced that he wouldn’t give up his position as army chief as expected under a 2004 deadline.

Boucher also gave little information on whether Musharraf had offered to provide U.S. officials with more details about the nuclear network run by A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, who’s admitted that he sold nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Iraq. Pakistan has declined to allow U.S. intelligence officers to interview Khan.

The Bush administration’s relationship with Musharraf underscores the difficulty the United States faces in pressing for greater democracy in countries that are key allies in the war on terrorism. Musharraf is credited with cutting off extremists in Pakistan and working with the United States to track down members of al-Qaida and the former Taliban government of Afghanistan.

But Musharraf has put off moves toward democracy and has taken few measures against Khan, who put together a “one-stop shop” of front companies and middlemen through which nuclear technology, know-how and even the blueprints for a bomb were transferred to other governments.

Earlier in India, Rice told Indian officials the United States opposes their plan to buy natural gas from Iran.

Rice said the United States wanted to help India meet its burgeoning energy needs, but that a proposed $4 billion gas pipeline from Iran through Pakistan to India would thwart efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh said India didn’t share Washington’s worries that Iran would try to get around international monitors and develop nuclear weapons.

Rice is scheduled to travel today to Afghanistan. She is then scheduled to travel to Japan, South Korea and China.