NEW YORK, Aug 16: The United States is “quietly prodding” President Pervez Musharraf to share authority with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as a way to keep him in power, the New York Times said on Thursday.

In an analysis, the paper said American officials had gotten behind the idea that an alliance with the Pakistan People’s Party leader would be Gen Musharraf’s best chance of remaining president.

Bush administration officials had said that they feared that Gen Musharraf could be toppled and replaced by someone who might be a less reliable US ally against terrorism, it said.

The newspaper revealed that Ms Bhutto, who is in New York visiting her husband Asif Zardari, has been holding talks with the Bush administration on the issue, especially with US Ambassador at the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad.

Saying that the Bush administration officials had taken pains not to endorse a power-sharing agreement publicly, so as not to give the impression that the United States was trying to influence Pakistani politics, the newspaper nevertheless noted that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did discuss the idea of a power-sharing arrangement when she called Gen Musharraf last week at 2am in Pakistan to warn him not to declare emergency powers.

According to the Times, State Department officials had been telling Gen Musharraf for months that he needed to broaden his political base and become less beholden to the Islamic groups that he had courted to shore up his power in the western part of the country. Asked about American support for a power-sharing deal, Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, told the Times: “We have met with all parties, and have expressed our support for open and fair elections. We have encouraged the parties to strengthen the moderate centre of Pakistani politics in order to better deal with the problems of extremism.”

Teresita C. Schaffer, a Pakistan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, also told the newspaper that American officials saw a deal between Gen Musharraf and Ms Bhutto “as a potential lifeline and one that would get him less deeply involved with the religious parties”.