No deal yet with Musharraf: Benazir Bhutto

London, Sept 1: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said today she had not yet reached a power-sharing deal with President Pervez Musharraf but will return to Pakistan ''very soon''. ''No understanding has been arrived at,'' she told a news conference in London of her negotiations with Musharraf that would see him quit as army chief and stand for re-election as president, and Bhutto return to become prime minister.

''I will be going back to Pakistan very soon,'' she said, adding the date of her return will be announced in Pakistan.

Pakistan, a nuclear power on the front line of the West's fight against al Qaeda, is facing the risk of instability and turmoil as Musharraf plots his course and former exiled Prime Ministers Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif prepare to return home.

Bhutto met with colleagues from her popular Pakistan People's Party in London today to decide their next step as Musharraf weighs his options ahead of elections expected between mid-September and mid-October he hopes will win him another five-year term.

But with his popularity plummeting and challenges to his rule mounting, Musharraf must line up support and he has turned to Bhutto for help to broaden his base.

Bhutto has insisted an agreement would hinge on Musharraf stepping down as chief of the army, which has ruled for more than half Pakistan's history since independence in 1947.

Both Bhutto and a government minister have raised the prospect Musharraf might quit the army before his re-election.

Bhutto, who has corruption charges hanging over her, also wants immunity for officials who served in the late 1980s and 1990s.

But many members of Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) are alarmed at the prospect of their old rival Bhutto returning to take power from them.

The party is rejecting parts of the proposed deal, including the lifting of a ban on a prime minster serving a third term -- which would exclude two-time prime minister Bhutto from power.

The party also objects to another Bhutto demand -- that the president be stripped of the power to dismiss governments.

With doubts growing about a deal with Bhutto, Musharraf is considering trying to secure the support of conservative religious parties, newspapers and a government official said.

Another looming problem for Musharraf, and Bhutto, is the return of exiled former Prime Minister Sharif, the leader Musharraf overthrew in a 1999 coup. He has said he would return on September.

10 to challenge Musharraf.

His first government was ousted in 1993 on charges of corruption and nepotism. Sharif came into power for a second time in 1996 but ran foul of Musharraf, then army chief, over a near war with India in 1999.

Musharraf toppled Sharif in October that year.

After he was overthrown, Sharif was sentenced to life in prison on graft and security charges. He was exiled in 2000 and could face arrest when he returns to Pakistan.

Sharif's defiance of Musharraf has raised his standing among the public, some of whom have questioned Bhutto's motives for negotiating with the unpopular president.

Reuters>