CONCORD – Presidential hopeful Joe Biden yesterday told Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf there will be consequences if his elections are in any way shoddy.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he spoke with the embattled president by phone. Biden said U.S. aid to that country may be in doubt if the upcoming elections don't meet expectations.

"I want to make it clear, for the United States of America to be willing to support Pakistan the way we have in the past, it rests on this transition to democracy being real. If this election is not fair and open, there will be consequences for it, in terms of our participating in aid," Biden said he told Musharraf.

Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency Saturday and said the crackdown was to save Pakistan from a conspiracy rather than ensure his own political survival. The U.S.-backed leader imposed strict curbs on press freedom and the replacement of independent-minded judges with jurists friendlier to him. Musharraf, however, will allow parliamentary elections next month. His rivals are talking about a boycott.

Biden said the entire situation is the result of President Bush taking a shortsighted view of the region.

"We shouldn't support Musharraf. We should support Pakistan," Biden said during an hour-long interview on New Hampshire Public Radio.

Biden noted early support from Musharraf during military action in Afghanistan, but said that shouldn't justify supporting antidemocratic behavior.

"We need a Pakistani policy, a consistent policy toward the government and the people of Pakistan, not a policy that holds all our hopes on one man, Musharraf."

Biden is promoting his struggling campaign through his foreign policy credentials. He said the next President shouldn't be a rookie -- a jab at Sen. Barack Obama, who only three years ago was a state legislator in Illinois, and who is in a close race with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the early states.

"I do not believe (voters) are prepared to turn over the reins to someone they don't think has the depth and breadth of knowledge, that they have confidence in, trust in to be able to guide them through what they know will be a pretty difficult decade."