ISLAMABAD, Jan 12: President Pervez Musharraf ruled out a United Nations probe into the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in an interview with a French newspaper published on Saturday.

Musharraf told Le Figaro that UN involvement was out of the question, and that the investigation into Benazir Bhutto's murder would be handled internally with the help of British police from Scotland Yard.

Ms Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her son, Bilawal, have both called for a UN inquiry, along the lines of the world body's probe into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.

“This is not possible. Another country is involved? Pakistan is not Lebanon,” Musharraf said in a transcript released by the government, referring to the implication of Syrian officials in the Hariri killing.

“It's a simple murder. We have our own institutions and we can count on the help of Scotland Yard. I hope that the investigation report will be made public before the elections,” he added.

Bilawal said last week that the family and the Pakistan People's Party wanted a “UN-sponsored investigation, because we do not believe that an investigation under the authority of the Pakistan government has the necessary transparency.”

Musharraf insisted the elections would go ahead and, while acknowledging an Al Qaeda campaign to destabilise Pakistan, denied the country was “on the verge of disintegration.” “They (the elections) will be held whatever happens. We have to defeat (the) terrorists' campaign aimed at derailing the democratic and economic process,” he said.

Musharraf, meanwhile, said he would quit if he really believed that he no longer had the support of most Pakistanis, but that reports of his unpopularity were untrue.

“I know very well what is the support that I have from the masses, the elite and the army. The day I think that I am genuinely unpopular, I will be the first to resign,” he told Le Figaro.

Meanwhile, a president's spokesman said on Saturday that there was no point in demanding a UN probe into the death of Benazir Bhutto as the case did not fit into the standards for such investigation.

“Such a probe is more appropriate in cases where two or more countries are involved,” Maj-Gen (Retd) Rashid Qureshi, president's spokesman, said in response to a demand by the Pakistan People's Party for a United Nations probe into the Dec 27 assassination of Ms Bhutto in Rawalpindi.

Qureshi told a private channel that the PPP's demand of a Hariri style investigation did not fit in the circumstances of the Liaquat Bagh incident.

The spokesman said the president had already invited the team of British investigators into Pakistan to provide necessary technical and forensic assistance to the local investigators.

He said the United Nations too will have to seek assistance from different countries to help in the probe and Pakistan has already acquired the assistance of British investigators.

He said the British team was mandated to conduct a thorough investigation to determine all aspects of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.—AFP/APP