Pakistan's opposition election winners were due to step up efforts to forge a coalition today.
Leaders of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML (N), vowed yesterday to work together to form a new government but said they still had details to work out.
The main party that backs unpopular President Pervez Musharraf was dealt a stunning defeat in Monday's general elections leaving the president, who has been one of Washington's top Muslim allies against al-Qaeda, vulnerable to a hostile parliament.
Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister Mr Musharraf overthrew in 1999 and whose PML (N) came second in the vote, has demanded the president steps down.
But since the election, Mr Musharraf has said he was not ready to resign.
Mr Sharif met Asif Ali Zardari, Mrs Bhutto's widower and leader of her PPP since her murder on December 27th, in Islamabad yesterday evening for their first talks since the election.
Mr Sharif later told a news conference the two parties would work together to form a government. Mr Zardari, whose party won the most seats in the election, said he wanted a broad government but one excluding the main party that backs Mr Musharraf.
The White House has urged the next government to work with Mr Musharraf and says Washington needs Pakistan - which borders Afghanistan where US and Nato forces are fighting Islamist militants - as an ally.