Pakistan ? Islamabad, Pakistan – President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held secret talks with opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, a government minister said Saturday.

Media widely reported that the once-bitter rivals discussed a power-sharing deal.

Such an alliance could strengthen the increasingly embattled Musharraf by bringing the secular, liberal opposition into his government amid growing concern about a rise in Islamic militancy. Analysts said Pakistan’s Western allies would welcome that.

But newspaper and television reports said the talks stalled over Bhutto’s insistence that Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in fighting terrorism, must quit his military post if he hopes to remain president.

Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press that the president and Bhutto “held a successful meeting” in the Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi on Friday. He would not elaborate on the subject of the talks.

Bhutto, leader of the secular Pakistan People’s Party, the country’s largest opposition group, told Pakistani television station KTN by phone from London, “Whatever we have done and are doing it is for democracy and social and economic rights of the people of Pakistan.”

But she repeatedly dodged the question when asked if she had met with Musharraf.

“Let’s talk of something else,” she said.