NEW YORK, Feb 3: President Pervez Musharraf has sold the rights to his political memoir, which will feature his views on the US war on terrorism and the Bush administration, to Simon & Schuster imprint Free Press, the publisher said on Wednesday.

President Musharraf, a key Bush administration ally as it has pursued wars in Afghanistan and Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, showed his proposal to several New York publishers before accepting a bid for world rights from Free Press. Simon & Schuster is a unit of Viacom Inc.

The book will be published in fall 2006, Free Press Vice President and Senior Editor Bruce Nichols told Reuters. "He's going to cover the war on terror from Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s up to the hunt for Osama bin Laden," Mr Nichols said.

"He's certainly also going to discuss his relationship with the Bush administration," he added. Gen Musharraf is seen as having taken a political risk By supporting President George W. Bush, and some in Washington are concerned about his ability to hold on to power.

In return for his support in the US war on terrorism and efforts to curtail the black market for nuclear weapons parts, Washington has taken a lenient view of Musharraf's reneging on promises to move Pakistan closer to democracy. -Reuters