ISLAMABAD (AFP) - - Pakistan reinstated its top judge on Sunday, two years after his ouster threw the nation into chaos, as the prime minister offered an olive branch to the main opposition leader to avert further crisis.

The government's decision to restore Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, an independent figure in a widely corrupt judiciary, has raised hopes of an end to a debilitating crisis that at times brought the nation to a virtual standstill.

Cheering supporters gathered at his house and sang the national anthem as Pakistan's flag was raised, a symbol of victory after a hard-fought political battle that helped end the military rule of ex-president Pervez Musharraf.

Security forces banned vehicles for a one-kilometre (half-mile) radius and subjected visitors to body searches outside the home of the chief justice, who got straight to work assigning cases in a court system facing a mass backlog.

Chaudhry and 60 other top judges were sacked in November 2007 by Musharraf, who feared the supreme court would disqualify him from running for re-election as president while he remained head of the military.

In a dramatic climbdown that followed months of broken promises and bitter protests, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced last Monday that the government had decided to reinstate the deposed chief justice.

It was a move aimed at ending a new wave of turmoil after a three-week showdown between opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who was demanding Chaudhry's reinstatement, and Musharraf's unpopular successor, President Asif Ali Zardari.

The pledge led Sharif to call off a mass protest march on the capital and for the moment appears to have defused a crisis in the frontline state in the US-led war on terror as it battles Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

Chaudhry has a reputation as an upstanding, independent-minded judge -- qualities that experts say will set the tone for a cleaner judiciary.

But while experts say his restoration is an important step, they warn he faces huge challenges to end corruption and secure government reforms.

In a further move towards reconciliation , Gilani held a first meeting with Sharif since the supreme court on February 25 disqualified the opposition leader from contesting elections, sparking the latest turmoil.

"I came to meet Mr. Nawaz Sharif with an olive branch from the government, with a message from President Asif Ali Zardari that the situation demands greater reconciliation because Pakistan faces great challenges," Gilani said.

The premier travelled to Sharif's country estate Raiwind in Punjab, the country's most important province which controls 60 percent of the seats in parliament and where Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) is dominant.

"We want reconciliation," Gilani told a joint news conference.

The government has filed appeals to overturn the ruling against Sharif and his brother Shahbaz, but no date has yet been set for the hearing.

Neither has a deal been reached on ending Zardari's controversial rule of Punjab, after the popular Shahbaz Sharif was kicked out of office as chief minister of the province.

Sharif welcomed the message of goodwill from his arch rival Zardari as a "good omen," but attached conditions to reconciliation.

He wants a constitutional amendment allowing the president to dismiss the government overturned, a move that would significantly reduce Zardari's power.

"We want the 17th amendment removed, the Charter of Democracy implemented. We will cooperate with the government," Sharif said.

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