Pakistan government set to split

One of the main parties in Pakistan has announced it is pulling out of the government, just three months after landmark general elections.

Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif says his PML-N is quitting because of differences over the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Sharif wants the judges, who became a focus of opposition to Mr Musharraf, to get all their old powers back.

But the biggest party, the PPP, wants limitations on their powers.

Issue-by-issue

"Our ministers will meet the prime minister tomorrow and will submit their resignations," Mr Sharif told journalists in Islamabad after meeting party colleagues.

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However, he indicated that he would support the Pakistan People's Party-led government from the backbenches on an issue-by-issue basis. "We will not become part of any conspiracy to destabilise the democratic process," he said.

Mr Sharif said that the coalition had twice failed to meet deadlines to restore the judges sacked by President Musharraf.

Reinstating the judges was one of Mr Sharif's key election promises and his condition for joining the coalition.

But he and his main coalition partner, the PPP, failed to agree on how to do this.

A statement from the PPP called the PML-N move "a pause in the process and not a break in the purpose of restoration of judges".