 The powers of the media and judiciary has been curtailed |
He was speaking three days after Gen Musharraf - a key ally in President Bush's "war on terror" - imposed a state of emergency.
Mr Bush urged Mr Musharraf to quit his post as army chief and hold elections as soon as possible.
Pakistan's prime minister says the elections will be held as scheduled.
Elections are due by mid-January, but there were fears they might be abandoned because of the crisis.
Police have broken up street protests and hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists have been arrested.
The Pakistani president said he had declared the emergency to stop the country "committing suicide", because the country was in a crisis caused by militant violence and an unruly judiciary.
Critics, however, believe Gen Musharraf was acting to pre-empt a judgment by the Supreme Court on whether his re-election last month was legal.
'Restore democracy'
Mr Bush said he had asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to phone Gen Musharraf to convey his disappointment, rather than making the call himself.
He said the US had hoped he would not declare the emergency, but that the two countries would continue to work together to fight terrorism.
"We expect there to be elections as soon as possible and that the president should remove his military uniform," he said.
"Previous to his decision, we had made it clear that these emergency measures would undermine democracy and our hope is that he will restore democracy as quickly as possible.
The BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington says the fact that Gen Musharraf ignored the US warning is an embarrassing snub to the White House.
Ms Rice has said Washington will now review the hundreds of millions of dollars of aid given to Pakistan each year.
But given Pakistan's importance to the US, our correspondent says, the possibility of cutting off the flow of assistance would seem to be remote.
Lawyers' protests
Pakistan had come under heavy international pressure after Gen Musharraf imposed emergency rule on Saturday.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed grave concern and called for the release of all those detained since the state of emergency was declared.
The UK has also reiterated demands for a return to civilian rule in Pakistan.
The Netherlands became the first country to suspend aid, and the EU said its members were considering "possible further steps".
But on Monday, the general gave his clearest indication yet that he was unlikely to give up his military post soon, even though he had been scheduled to do so this month.
In Lahore on Monday an estimated 2,000 lawyers congregated to stage a rally protesting at the dismissal of top judges and restrictions on the judiciary, but several were reported wounded when police waded in with tear gas and baton charges.
Lawyers chanting anti-Musharraf slogans at a demonstration in Karachi were dragged off into police vans, says the BBC's M Ilyas Khan.
Media reports, citing police and interior ministry sources, said some 1,500 people had been arrested in the past 48 hours throughout the country, while many top judges were effectively under house arrest.
The Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami was among the groups targeted.
Its leader, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, was under arrest, as were hundreds of members, the party said.
Information Minister Tariq Azim called those figures an exaggeration.
Pakistani TV news channels, which have huge audiences, are being prevented from broadcasting within the country, and at least one newspaper press was raided by police.
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