U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert O Blake on Thursday urged both the ruling Awami League and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to find out a way for holding a clean and credible general election slated in early 2014.

"The two major political parties should reach an agreement to fix a mechanism for holding a free, fair and credible election," Blake made the call at a press conference on Thursday concluding his three-day trip to Bangladesh.

The U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asia and Central Asian affairs was hopeful that the two parties will come to an understanding on a fair election.

Blake arrived in Dhaka Tuesday on a three-day visit and met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni. The U.S. official met the BNP chief and two times prime minister Khaleda Zia on Wednesday and talked about the political situation in the country.

After the meeting with Khaleda Zia, the assistant secretary of state expressed the hope that both the ruling and opposition parties should reach an understanding for holding a clean and credible election.

Both the ruling Awami League and the opposition are quarreling on the caretaker government system as the ruling party abolished the system from the constitution to hold the next general election under the current government.

But the BNP is demanding restoration of the caretaker government system as the party said elections will never be clean under a political government. The BNP says it will not join the next election under the AL.

The caretaker government stipulates that the general election must be held by a non-partisan caretaker government and the system was in force in the country since 1996.

The Bangladeshi Parliament on June 30 last year passed the 15th Constitution Amendment Bill, bringing a series of changes, including repeal of the provision for holding national elections under the non-party caretaker government which means that Hasina's incumbent AL-led government will stay in power during the next parliamentary elections slated for early 2014.