Musharraf-Bhutto talks set for Dubai

Failed power-sharing talks between beleaguered Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf and former president Benazir Bhutto are likely to be resumed in Dubai in an effort to avert a political crisis in the restive South Asian state.

Bhutto is determined to return to Pakistan and has been locked in negotiations with Musharraf's top aides in London. But talks last week ended in deadlock and Bhutto vowed to return home regardless. In the latest development, Dubai has been chosen as a neutral location on which to pursue further negotiations.

The president's top aide is already in the emirate and Bhutto held secret talks with Musharraf in Abu Dhabi in July.

The pair are unlikely allies given the history of bitter rivalry between the two bold personalities. But Pakistani information minister Muhammad Ali Durrani has insisted that "dialogue should continue" between the two.

Bhutto's insistence that Musharraf relinquish his military position as chief of the armed forces in order to stand for re-election for another five-year term has been opposed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Party.

She has also demanded that the president surrender his power to dissolve parliament and allow premiers to serve a third term. Government officials have called some of her demands "unrealistic." Despite repeated pledges to relinquish his uniform since coming to power he has consistently failed to do so.

Musharraf's eight year military regime has become increasingly precarious over recent months with both Bhutto and another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, making preparations to return to Pakistan before presidential elections later in the year.

Musharraf ousted Sharif in the military coup of 1999 that placed the general in power.

He presides over a country where central rule does not penetrate tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where Al Qaeda leaders are said to take refuge, and where an ongoing insurgency rumbles on the southern province of Baluchistan.