ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's two main opposition parties vowed to work together on Thursday to form a government after their election win, raising the prospect of a coalition intent on forcing President Pervez Musharraf from power.

The U.S. ally has signalled he has no plans to step down, despite his allies' defeat in Monday's election by the Pakistan People's Party of assassinated ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan Muslim League .

"We will work together to form the government," Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister whose party came second in the poll behind the PPP, told reporters.

Zardari, who has led the PPP since his wife's assassination on December 27, said he wanted a "government of national consensus" that excluded the main pro-Musharraf party. It came a poor third in the election.

Zardari said that he and Sharif would hold more talks and vowed the PPP and Sharif's party would remain united: "We intend to stay together, we intend to be together in parliament."

Sharif, ousted by Musharraf in 1999, repeated his call for Musharraf to step down and said he and Zardari agreed on all points.

"There is no issue of disagreement between us," he said.

Zardari said on Wednesday that parliament should decide whether it can work with Musharraf.

The president outraged many Pakistanis when he declared a six-week stint of emergency rule in November and purged the judiciary, detained activists and gagged the media.

But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Wednesday, Musharraf said he was not ready to resign: "We have to move forward in a way that we bring about a stable democratic government to Pakistan."

BUSH SUPPORT

Musharraf has been one of Washington's top Muslim allies in the fight against al Qaeda and is vulnerable to a hostile parliament after his supporters' election defeat.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has urged the next government to work with Musharraf. Washington needs Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan where U.S. and NATO-led forces are fighting Islamist militants, as an ally.

Analysts have said say if the PPP and Sharif's party teamed up, Musharraf could either quit or drag nuclear-armed Pakistan through more upheaval as parliament tries to oust him on grounds he violated the constitution when he imposed the emergency.

Musharraf's critics say his efforts to hold on to power have destabilised the country. Neighbours and allies fear Pakistan is becoming more volatile.

Nevertheless, Pakistani shares, buoyed by the peaceful poll, ended at a new closing high, at 14,971.94 points. The market has gained 4.3 percent since the election and recovered the losses that followed Bhutto's killing.

Since returning from exile in November, Sharif has demanded the reinstatement of judges Musharraf fired when he imposed a state of emergency on November 3.

Musharraf sacked the judges, including then Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, before they could rule on whether his re-election by the last parliament while he was army chief was constitutional.

Western diplomats said the election winners should quickly form a government before addressing Musharraf's future or the reinstatement of the judges. But they said the message from Monday's poll was clear.

"In Washington, London and other capitals, people are not in denial about what the message of the elections was," a Western diplomat in Islamabad said.

Is this article useful to you?