Pakistan ? An embittered former Pakistani prime minister vowed Thursday to return home from exile in London next month to fight the attempt by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to extend his military rule.

Nawaz Sharif said he would set foot in Pakistan on Sept. 10 after seven years away, setting up a three-cornered fight for power in a front-line state of the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

“The battle lines in Pakistan are clearly drawn. On one side you have the people loyal to democracy … on the other side are the forces of a dying dictatorship,” Sharif said at a news conference called to discuss his plans.

He condemned an announcement by Benazir Bhutto, another exiled ex-premier and Sharif’s longtime political rival, that she was close to a power-sharing deal with Musharraf, who agrees with her relatively liberal, pro-Western outlook.

Bhutto claimed Musharraf agreed to step down as head of Pakistan’s army and end military rule eight years after the general ousted Sharif in a bloodless coup.

A spokesman for Musharraf said Thursday no decision had been made but it was being discussed.