Pakistani leaders set for talks

The opposition PPP is celebrating the election result

The leaders of the two parties that won the most seats in Monday's elections in Pakistan are due to meet to discuss forming a coalition government.

Such a government could force President Pervez Musharraf from power.

The Pakistan People's Party leader, Benazir Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari, will have talks with Nawaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League.

Mr Sharif has said he wants Mr Musharraf to go, but Mr Zardari's party has been less clear-cut on the issue.

Mr Musharraf has said he wishes to stay and work towards stable democratic government in Pakistan.

He said the polls had strengthened moderate forces inside the country.

Correspondents say the most likely coalition government is between Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif's parties, as they would have more than half of parliament's seats between them.

If a new governing coalition manages to muster a two-thirds majority in parliament, it could call for Mr Musharraf to be impeached.

No guarantees

Mr Sharif has said he is prepared to discuss joining a coalition with Mr Zardari's party in order "to rid Pakistan of dictatorship forever".

But a coalition between the two is the most likely option, there are certainly issues on which they disagree and there are no guarantees an alliance will emerge.

Separately, Mr Zardari has ruled himself out as prime minister, despite his party's success at the election.

He has said his PPP party would choose another candidate to lead a coalition government that opposition parties are expected to form.

Mr Zardari, a deeply divisive figure in Pakistani politics who has spent several years in prison on corruption charges, is not an MP and is therefore not currently eligible to serve as prime minister.

But there had been speculation that he might enter parliament via a by-election.

Major ally

Mr Zardari has said his party could work with the MQM, a Sindh-based regional party which supports Mr Musharraf.

Mr Sharif has urged Mr Musharraf to resign, and a PPP statement cited alleged remarks by the president that he would step down if the parties supporting him were defeated in elections.

In an earlier interview for the US newspaper the Wall Street Journal, Mr Musharraf said he would not resign or retire.

He was re-elected to the presidency last October, in a parliamentary vote boycotted by the opposition as unconstitutional.

He has been a major US ally in the "war on terror" but his popularity has waned at home amid accusations of authoritarianism and incompetence.

With votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies, the PPP has won 87 seats, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The Pakistan Muslim League, or PML-N, is in second place with 67 seats so far.

Musharraf rules out resignation

The party of Nawaz Sharif (centre) is in second place

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, says he has no plans to resign, despite a sweeping victory by the opposition in the country's parliamentary elections.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Musharraf said there was a need to move forward to help bring about a stable democratic government in Pakistan.

Meanwhile the party of late former PM Benazir Bhutto says it is ready to form a coalition with Nawaz Sharif's PML-N.

The main party backing President Musharraf suffered a heavy defeat.

A union of Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) with the PML-N of another former PM, Nawaz Sharif, would have more than half parliament's seats.

The president's position has never looked more precarious, the BBC's Chris Morris in Islamabad says.

If a new governing coalition manages to muster a two-thirds majority in parliament, it could call for Mr Musharraf to be impeached.

NATIONAL RESULTS SO FAR PPP (Bhutto's party) : 87 PML-N (Nawaz Sharif): 66 PML-Q: (pro-Musharraf) 39 MQM (Sindh-based): 19 ANP (Secular Pashtuns): 10 MMA (Islamic alliance): 3 Others: 34 Source: Election commission

But Mr Musharraf said that he would try to work with any new government.

"I would like to function with any party and any coalition because that is in the interest of Pakistan," he told the Wall Street Journal.

"The clash would be if the prime minister and president would be trying to get rid of each other. I only hope we would avoid these clashes," the president added.

Mr Musharraf was re-elected to the presidency last October, in a vote boycotted by the opposition as unconstitutional.

He has been a major US ally in the "war on terror" but his popularity has waned at home amid accusations of authoritarianism and incompetence.

The US State Department described Monday's election as a "step toward the full restoration of democracy".

'End of dictatorship'

At a press conference on Tuesday, Ms Bhutto's widower and the PPP leader, Asif Ali Zardari, said his party would "form a government of national consensus which will take along every democratic force".

"For now, the decision of the party is that we are not interested in any of those people who are part and parcel of the last government," he said, seemingly ruling out any coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League's pro-Musharraf wing, the PML-Q.

With votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies, the PPP has won 87 seats, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan.

PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari invited Mr Sharif to join a coalition

The PML-N, or Pakistani Muslim League-Nawaz, is in second place with 66 seats so far.

Mr Sharif said earlier on Tuesday that he was prepared to discuss joining a coalition with Mr Zardari's party in order "to rid Pakistan of dictatorship forever".

The two parties so far have a combined total of 153 seats in the 272-seat parliament.

President Pervez Musharraf main parliamentary ally, the PML-Q, has already admitted defeat.

The party has come a distant third, with 39 seats so far.

PML-Q chairman, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, told Associated Press Television News his party accepted the results "with an open heart" and was prepared to "sit on opposition benches".

Mr Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, stepped down as army chief last year, at the urging of his foreign allies.

The parliamentary election has been seen as a key milestone in Pakistan's transition from military to civilian rule.

The election was preceded by months of violence, including the suicide attack that killed PPP leader, Ms Bhutto, in December.

The poll was initially scheduled for early January but was delayed after her assassination.

Pakistan's military has been trying to contain a Taleban-influenced Islamist insurgency along the country's rugged frontier with Afghanistan.

Pakistan poll date decision due

Elections were two weeks away when Bhutto was killed

Pakistan's election commission is meeting to decide when elections originally scheduled for 8 January will take place.

On Tuesday it said holding the polls as planned looked "impossible", in the wake of clashes following the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

A commission official said the decision on the parliamentary poll would be made after consulting the political parties.

The main opposition parties want the poll to go ahead as planned.

The commission's spokesman, Kanwar Dilshad, said violent protests had directly affected the organisation of the poll.

PPP TOP LEADERS Asif Ali Zardari Benazir's widower and former political ally, has faced corruption and other charges Bilawal Bhutto (pictured) Benazir's son, a 19-year-old Oxford University student, considered too young by some PPP members Makhdoom Amin Fahim Senior PPP figure and top aide to Benazir

Thirteen polling offices were burnt in Ms Bhutto's home province of Sindh as protests and violent clashes broke out after her assassination last Thursday, he said.

But opposition parties have condemned any delay as a desperate measure to avoid defeat by President Pervez Musharraf's ruling party.

"There are no grounds whatsoever for delaying the elections," said Raza Rabbani, deputy secretary general of Ms Bhutto's party, the PPP.

"It is being done only at the behest of the PML-Q as they are seeing their defeat," he said.

The other main opposition leader, former PM Nawaz Sharif, vowed his party would "agitate" against a delay.

The ruling PML-Q party has said the 8 January vote should be delayed for several weeks, on the grounds that the vote would "lose credibility" if held under current conditions.

The BBC's Chris Morris in Islamabad says the PPP wants elections as soon as possible, in order to take advantage of what could be a big sympathy vote.

Dossier on 'rigging'

On Tuesday, one of Ms Bhutto's aides said that the day the PPP leader was killed, she had been planning to give two visiting US lawmakers a 160-page dossier setting out how she thought the vote would be rigged.

The aide said it documented how Pakistan's ISI intelligence service and the election commission planned to use intimidation and fake ballots to ensure a ruling party victory.

President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman dismissed the claims as "ridiculous".

"Take it from me, it's going to be perhaps the best election that Pakistan has ever had," said Rashid Qureshi.

The electoral commission has asked each of Pakistan's four provincial governments to compile reports on their readiness for an election.

The commission says in many districts ballot boxes and voting screens have been destroyed and the printing of ballot papers - and their delivery around the country - has also been disrupted.

Clashes

At least 47 people have been killed in violence since Ms Bhutto's death.

The authorities have accused pro-Taleban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud of being behind her killing.

On Wednesday, the military said troops had killed about 25 militants in the tribal region of South Waziristan where Baitullah Mehsud is based.

Fighting began on Tuesday after four troops were taken hostage by the militants, the authorities say.