The opposition leader was placed under a seven-day detention order on Tuesday in Lahore, where she had been planning a mass protest march.

Police said the order had been lifted - but there are reportedly still dozens of officers outside her residence.

On Thursday, Ms Bhutto reportedly told Dawn TV she had conclusively ruled out the possibility of sharing power with Gen Musharraf, whom she accuses of taking Pakistan back towards military dictatorship.

Tensions rose when the first reported deaths of the crisis came amid pro-Bhutto protests in Karachi on Thursday.

Two boys, said to be aged around 11 or 12, and an adult died when gunfire broke out during a demonstration against Ms Bhutto's detention, police said. Several other people were reportedly wounded.

A new prime minister is set to be sworn in on Friday until elections next year, in what President Pervez Musharraf says marks a transition to democracy.

Mohammedmian Soomro, a member of Gen Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League Q party, will be sworn in at the head of an interim government, after parliament was dissolved at the end of its five-year term on Thursday.