Pakistan's Musharraf, Bhutto meet: Minister

Islamabad, July 29: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto have held talks in Abu Dhabi, a federal cabinet minister confirmed today, in an apparent effort to strike a power-sharing pact.

Such an agreement could help assure the increasingly beleaguered Musharraf, an important US ally in its war against terror, hangs onto the presidency.

He returned early today after a brief visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Pakistani media had widely reported he met Bhutto, who flew into the Gulf state from London for the unannounced Friday talks.

Both Musharraf and Bhutto have kept silent about the session, but Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Khan Niazi said it happened.

''I can confirm the meeting, there is no doubt about that,'' he told Reuters.

Bhutto, in comments to Aaj TV, neither denied nor confirmed the talks.

''I am in London holding (her party's) parliamentary meeting and there the government's spokesman has denied it and the Pakistani embassy (in UAE) has also denied it,'' she said.

However, she went on say she was in dialogue with the government but a settlement had not been reached.

''When there is, we will surely inform.'' Pakistan's leading English daily, The News, said a deal had already been sealed.

''The meeting in Abu Dhabi was actually a 'kind of signing ceremony' which is conducted at the end of a long tedious talks process,'' the newspaper said, quoting unnamed reliable sources.

Musharaf is going through the weakest period of his eight-year rule, and a Supreme Court decision last week to reinstate a chief justice he had spent four months trying to sack raised questions about his ability to secure a second five-year term.

General Musharraf wants to be relected by the sitting assemblies while still army chief. Bhutto says he should get re-elected after parliamentary elections due around the end of the year, and should stand as civilian.

Minister Niazi said that in case of a compromise there would have to be legal and constitutional changes.

''There is a question of the president's uniform. Then there has to be an amendment in the constitution that bars two-time prime ministers to run for a third term.'' Bhutto, who has lived in self-exile in London and Dubai since 1998, served the country as prime minister in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Following the reinstatement of the chief justice, Bhutto has seen her bargaining position for a comeback as prime minister strengthen as Musharraf's grip on power weakens.

While Musharraf would be ready to give her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) a share of power, he would prefer the strong-willed Bhutto to stay on the sidelines, according to government sources.

Both share a vision of turning Pakistan into a moderate, progressive nation, and if Musharraf were to forge a partnership with Bhutto, who controls Pakistan's most liberal political party, they could form a bullwark against religious conservatives and Islamist militancy.

Reuters>