��The Clinton administration is prepared to lift a range of economic sanctions imposed on India after last year's nuclear tests, but will keep them in place against Pakistan.

��"We've made very clear that there won't be business as usual with Pakistan until there is a prompt restoration of civilian and democratic rule," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said Wednesday.

��The administration wants Pakistan's new military leader, Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, to "announce a clear timetable for the early restoration of constitutional, civilian and democratic government," said Karl Inderfurth, assistant secretary of state for South Asia.

��Back-to-back nuclear test explosions in May 1998 by India and Pakistan triggered a U.S. law that automatically imposed trade and other sanctions on both countries.

��Congress gave President Clinton authority to temporarily suspend some of them - principally to allow U.S. farmers to keep selling their agricultural products to both countries. But those waivers were expiring today.

��Legislation to give the president new and permanent authority to suspend the sanctions is on Clinton's desk. It is part of a $268 billion defense spending bill for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

��Assuming he signs the bill - still not certain because of spending disputes with the GOP-led Congress - Clinton is prepared to begin waiving sanctions that apply to India, Inderfurth told a House International Relations subcommittee.

��But the administration will not do the same for Pakistan, Inderfurth said.

��Furthermore, he said that the Oct. 12 military coup also triggered another law denying U.S. aid to a country whose democratically elected government is deposed.

��The reimposition of the sanctions on Pakistan "is likely to adversely affect U.S. wheat exports to Pakistan," Arona Butcher, an analyst for the U.S. International Trade Commission, told the International Affairs subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.

��The financial impact on Pakistan would be about $57 million, much of it in lost credits from the United States to purchase wheat from the United States, she said.

��Meanwhile, the 22-year-old son of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif issued a written appeal to the United States to help bring international pressure to obtain the release of his father and other members of his family.

��"The silence is terrifying," Hasan Nawaz Sharif said in a statement from London that was delivered to the subcommittee during Wednesday's hearing.

��"It is with great fear and trepidation that I submit this statement for inclusion in the record," he wrote. "I take this step with faith in the committee members to focus attention on the personal safety and security of my father ... and the members of our family."

��There has been no word on the whereabouts of Sharif, who was put under house arrest in the early hours of the coup. With him were another son, Hussein, and a brother, Shabbaz.

��Sharif's son-in-law was also arrested at his home and documents detailing family businesses were seized.

��"Communication between family members has been terminated," Hasan's statement said. "I myself have been unable, in spite of repeated attempts, to contact any of my family members in Pakistan." (Associated Press)