New Pakistani Premier sworn in

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf swore in new Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani yesterday, a day after Parliament elected the top official from assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's party.

In an apparent snub to the increasingly isolated Mr Musharraf, Mrs Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and their son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who together lead her party, declined to attend the ceremony at the presidency.

"Long live Bhutto," one of the guests at the ceremony shouted as Mr Gilani completed his oath.

President Musharraf and Mr Gilani shook hands at the end of the ceremony.

State television said Mr Zardari and his son, who has returned to Pakistan from Britain where he is studying, had been invited to the ceremony that was broadcast live.

Mr Musharraf's popularity has largely evaporated over the past year and his political allies were soundly beaten in February 18 elections won by Mrs Bhutto's party weeks after she was assassinated.

Also invited to the swearing-in was former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party came second to Mrs Bhutto's party in the election, state television said, but he too declined to attend.

Mr Sharif, the Prime Minister then army chief whom Mr Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, is joining a coalition led by Bhutto's party with at least two smaller parties.

Mr Sharif, who has called for Mr Musharraf to resign, was meeting US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher as Mr Gilani was sworn in.

The two US officials, who arrived in Pakistan earlier in the day, were also expected to meet Mr Gilani and Mr Musharraf, Pakistani media said.

The US and other Western allies fear more instability in their nuclear-armed ally, which is already facing a campaign of attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants, if there is confrontation between the President and the new government.

Husain Haqqani, a professor at Boston University and a senior adviser to Mrs Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said he believed the US officials wanted to show support for the democratic process and discuss the US-led campaign against terrorism. Members of the new coalition have spoken of the need to open talks with the militants responsible for a wave of suicide attacks, raising questions about Pakistan's strategy in the US-led campaign against terrorism.

President Musharraf's support for the US campaign has been deeply unpopular with many Pakistanis who have criticised the president for, as they see it, doing the bidding of the United States and provoking militant violence.

"Things will have to change, they'll have to be done with greater transparency because of the new democratic dispensation," Mr Haqqani said.

On Monday, 264 members of the 342-seat lower house of Parliament voted for Mr Gilani to become prime minister.

In an immediate challenge to Mr Musharraf, Mr Gilani ordered the release of judges detained after the president declared emergency rule in November.