ISLAMABAD - THE leaders of the two parties that came out on top in Pakistan's election meet on Thursday to discuss forming a coalition government that could force President Pervez Musharraf out of power.

Mr Musharraf, who won power in a 1999 military coup in the nuclear-armed nation and has been one of Washington's top Muslim allies against al Qaeda, is vulnerable to a hostile parliament after his supporters were heavily defeated in Monday's election.

Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Mr Musharraf overthrew more than eight years ago and whose party came second in the election, goes into the coalition talks having made clear he would like to drive the president from power.

He also called for 'harmonious coalition'. 'The president emphasised the need for harmonious coalition in the interest of peaceful governance, development and progress of Pakistan,' a foreign ministry statement said.

Work with Musharraf: US

US President George W. Bush's administration has urged the next government to work with Mr Musharraf and says Washington needs Pakistan - which borders Afghanistan where US and Nato-led forces are fighting Islamist militants - as an ally.

'We've got interests in helping make sure there is no safe haven from which people can plot and plan attacks against the United States of America and Pakistan,' President Bush told reporters during a visit to Ghana.

Mr Musharraf's critics say his efforts to hold on to power have been a destabilising factor in a country already battling to stop attacks on its territory by al Qaeda and other militants.

Neighbours and allies fear Pakistan is becoming more unstable.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman added that his country stands ready to resume talks with the new government as part of a peace process with its nuclear-armed South Asian rival.

The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto emerged as the main victor in the election and has begun coalition talks with Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), also known as PML-N or the Nawaz League.

'Find solutions'

'We are going to find solutions to the problems of Pakistan,' Ms Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari, who took over as PPP leader after she was killed on Dec 27, said of his planned meeting with Sharif.

'Parliament will decide which president it can work with and which president it cannot,' Mr Zardari told reporters.

Alleges post-poll rigging

He also alleged that Pakistani authorities were withholding election results and attempting to alter them.

'Last night the situation was that they were trying to change the results,' he told a news conference, two days after the polls in which his PPP won the largest number of seats.

A statement from PPP on Wednesday 'recalled General Musharraf's recent statements that if the parties supporting him were defeated in the elections, then he would resign from his office.'

The election commission has not yet released the official results, saying that around half a dozen seats have yet to be confirmed.

'They are trying to rig the results by holding the final results of several seats,' PPP leader Taj Haider said.

Sharif wants reinstatement of judges

Since returning from exile in November, a month after Ms Bhutto, Mr Sharif has championed the reinstatement of judges Mr Musharraf fired when he imposed six weeks of emergency rule on Nov 3.

'There are no chances of showing any flexibility on the issue of judges' reinstatement,' Mr Sharif said on Wednesday.

Mr Musharraf sacked the judges, including 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 legitimate under Pakistan's constitution.

Analysts say if the PPP and Sharif's party team up, Mr Musharraf can either quit gracefully or drag Pakistan through more upheaval as parliament tries to oust him on grounds he violated the constitution when he imposed emergency rule.

Analysts say Mr Musharraf will be hoping Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif fail to agree on a coalition and that this could occur because of a history of enmity and mistrust between their parties.

Mr Zardari was adamant Mr Musharraf's main supporters, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), would not be admitted to a PPP-led coalition, but gave the president a glimmer of hope by saying a junior partner in the last PML-led government was welcome.

'I want to make a government along with MQM,' Mr Zardari told a news conference on Wednesday, referring to Muttahida Qaumi Movement, a party representing Urdu speakers who migrated to Karachi when Pakistan was formed out of the partition of India.

Mr Musharraf belongs to that community and enjoyed some rapport with the MQM when it was in the government he presided over.

With votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies, the PPP and Mr Sharif's party had a combined total of 153 seats, the election commission said. The former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and its allies together had 58.

The PPP won the most votes of any single party with more than 10 million, the government-run Associated Press of Pakistan said, citing electoral commission figures.

But when added together, votes for the former ruling coalition topped the PPP by almost 800,000. Mr Sharif's party won 6.2 million votes, the figures showed.-- REUTERS, AFP

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