Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said troops will be ordered to shoot anyone trying to disrupt general elections due on February 18.

The elections are meant to complete a transition to civilian rule and allies of nuclear-armed Pakistan hope they will promote stability after months of political turmoil and rising militant violence.

The elections for the lower house National Assembly and assemblies in Pakistan's four provinces were postponed from January 8 after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto on December 27.

Nearly 50 people were killed in rioting after the opposition leader's murder, most in her home province of Sindh in the south, and many millions of dollars in damage was caused.

Speaking to businessmen in Karachi, the country's commercial capital, Musharraf said the government would not allow riots to occur again.

"Let me assure you we are going to instruct the rangers and army to shoot miscreants during elections," the official Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as saying late on Monday.

"We will not allow this activity to happen again," he said.

Troops would be on patrol during and after the polls, he said.

Pakistan, a strong ally in the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism, has been struck by a wave of militant violence in recent months in which hundreds of people have been killed.

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