ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: No official confirmation was available here on Monday of a news report carried by a Washington-based website saying that President Pervez Musharraf had talked with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif on telephone to offer condolence on the death of their father Mian Mohammad Sharif.

Minister of Information Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, when contacted, expressed ignorance about any phone contact between the president and the Sharifs in Saudi Arabia and said that the matter concerned the presidency.

A source in the presidency would neither confirm nor deny the reporter. However, a source in the Pakistan Muslim League(N) said the news was correct and President Musharraf had called the Sharif brothers on Nov 5 and regretted the government's failure to make arrangements for the visit of some members of the Sharif family to Pakistan for the burial of late Mohammad Sharif.

He said Gen Musharraf first talked with Shahbaz Sharif and then with Nawaz Sharif, who was in Madina at that time. The PML(N) source said the telephonic conversation had been kept secret both by the government and the Sharif family.

He quoted Gen Musharraf as having told Mr Sharif that it was his desire that the Sharif brothers should have come to Pakistan to attend the burial of their father. However, Gen Musharraf told the Sharifs that there had been some confusion and miscommunication between the government and the family.