The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said that he will step down as army chief before December 1, the country's attorney general told reporters Thursday.

The announcement came as military ruler Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and declared a state of emergency on November 3, faced growing international calls to shed his uniform.

"The president has said he will give up his uniform before December 1," attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum told a news conference.

Musharraf and other officials have previously said he will wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the legality of his October 6 re-election as president before quitting the army.

Asked what would happen if the court -- stripped of hostile judges under emergency laws -- ruled against Musharraf, Qayyum said: "He will decide about it himself. He has already his appointed his successor." Musharraf named former spy chief Ashfaq Kiyani as the heir apparent to the post of chief of army staff in October.

Qayyum said Pakistan's incoming caretaker government would take an oath on Friday morning after the current parliament dissolves at one minute before midnight.

A U.S. diplomat met with detained opposition leader Benazir Bhutto Thursday, while she and another rival of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf opened talks on forming an alliance against him. The political unrest worsened, leaving two children dead, officials said.

Unidentified protesters opened "indiscriminate gunfire" in a violence-ridden neighborhood of Karachi, killing two boys aged 11 and 12, police officer Aslam Gujjar said.

Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf conferred with key aides Thursday to hand-pick a caretaker government that will steer the emergency-ruled nation toward elections.

His presidency officially comes to an end at midnight, the same time as parliament dissolves, amidst a mounting political crisis triggered by his declaration of emergency rule.

The military ruler has pledged general elections by January 9 but said the state of emergency will stay in place until then.

The government said Musharraf, as the incumbent, would remain in office as both army chief and president until the Supreme Court rules on the legality of his victory in an October 6 presidential election.

Opposition leaders including detained former premier Benazir Bhutto have called on Musharraf to quit, while international pressure is growing for him to give up his role as army chief and end the emergency.

"In the constitution the incumbent will continue until the next president takes oath. That is only a common-sense approach, that you cannot have the office lying vacant," Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem told newsmen.

Musharraf's lawyers told the Supreme Court in September that his five-year term in office would end on November 15. He also promised to shed his uniform before his second term.

Critics say jitters over the likely court ruling led to Musharraf imposing the state of emergency on November 3, following which he gutted the court and replaced its top judges.

Detained opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said Thursday she hopes to form a national unity government to replace President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ahead of elections, and is contacting other opposition parties to get them on board.

"I am talking to the other opposition parties to find out whether they are in a position to come together," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the home in Lahore where she is under house arrest. "We need to see whether we can come up with an interim government of national consensus to whom power can be handed."

Bhutto left open the question of whether she, or someone else, would lead such a government, saying it was a subject that would have to be worked out in negotiations.

But she said a consensus must be reached that would ensure an orderly transition should Musharraf agree to step down.