SETTING ASIDE DIFFERENCES: Mr Nawaz Sharif (left) and Mr Asif Ali Zardari holding a news conference in Lahore on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: AP

The plans to form a coalition come as the country gears up for polls next Monday, amid instability and rising unhappiness with Mr Musharraf's government.

'The country is passing through a most dangerous phase,' said Mr Asif Ali Zar-

dari, joint chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), shortly after meeting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who leads the Pakistan Muslim League, and his younger brother Shahbaz.

'Either we stay together or the casualty rate is going to be what it is in other countries where great difficulties have come.'

Punjab state, which dominates national life, including the powerful military, is critical because 148 of the 272 national seats being contested are from the province.

Mr Zardari, who inherited the PPP from his wife Benazir Bhutto after she was assassinated, was on his first campaign visit to the province since the 40-day mourning period for her ended. The Bhuttos are from Sind province.

Mr Zardari met Mr Sharif in the latter's Lahore home on Tuesday night, travelling in a white Toyota Land Cruiser similar to the one in which Ms Bhutto was killed on Dec 27 in a suicide blast.

The Bhuttos and the Sharifs are bitter rivals, leading the biggest political formations in the strife-torn country, although neither Mr Zardari nor Mr Sharif is a candidate this time.

Following the meeting, Mr Sharif, who was ousted by then army chief Musharraf in 1999 and later exiled, appeared to back Mr Zardari's move for conciliation, saying: 'We have to join hands to save us all from further deterioration in the country.'

The Feb 18 polls to elect a new national assembly and fresh legislatures in the four provinces were previously fixed for Jan 8, but were delayed by Ms Bhutto's assassination. That respite gave Mr Sharif's party time to regroup and work the ground.

Mr Shahbaz Sharif, a former chief minister of Punjab, earlier told The Straits Times that a national coalition government that brought together the principal parties looked increasingly imperative.

'It is time we learnt to take tea together, regardless of the political differences we may have,' he said.

Many Pakistanis fear that the deeply unpopular Mr Musharraf's government may contrive a way to put the elections off indefinitely or rig them to shore up his legitimacy.

In a survey released by the US-based International Republican Institute on Monday, half of the 3,485 respondents said they would vote for Ms Bhutto's PPP, while only 14 per cent would vote for the party that supports the President.

Still, while Mr Musharraf has stepped down as army chief, he continues to be backed by the military, referred to in this nation simply as 'the establishment'.

Mr Zardari did not seem confident that the establishment would let his party form a government.

Even as he referred to Mr Musharraf as a 'paper tiger', he did not rule out a post-election arrangement with him, repeatedly saying: 'We will cross that bridge when we come to it.'

'All of Pakistan knows that Zardari is not weak,' said the man who spent 11 years in jail on corruption and other charges. 'The establishment has not understood the mood of the country.'

velloor@sph.com.sg