Reports: Pakistan's Musharraf to resign as president

Islamabad: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is expected to resign rather than face impeachment, Western media reported.

The ruling government coalition, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said last week it planned to impeach him.

A spokesman for the president on Friday denied that Musharraf was about to quit.

A coalition official preparing for the president's impeachment said he could not confirm Musharraf's resignation plans but said there was a growing sense he was going to step down.

The Financial Times quoted an unidentified senior Pakistani government member as saying a deal had been brokered between Musharraf and members of the coalition government.

"The president will neither be impeached nor prosecuted on any charges. He will try and stay in Pakistan," the paper quoted the official as saying.