ISLAMABAD : Lawmakers from the party of slain former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto have asked her widower to run for president in the wake of Pervez Musharraf's resignation, a minister said Thursday.

The MPs from the Pakistan's People's Party (PPP), which leads the country's four-party coalition government, voiced their support for Asif Ali Zardari at a dinner he hosted Wednesday at his Islamabad residence.

"Members belonging to our party in the parliament (have) asked Asif to become the next president," Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar told AFP.

"He is the most deserving candidate for this post."

The coalition forced Musharraf -- a key US ally in the "war on terror" who took power in a 1999 coup -- to quit as president Monday by threatening to impeach him, reportedly for violating the constitution.

Zardari, who took over as PPP co-chairman after Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack in December, saw his party won a majority of the seats in February elections.

It was not immediately clear whether Zardari, who had previously denied having any ambition for the presidency, would choose to run.

Mukhtar said the party's executive committee would make a final decision on its choice of candidate at a meeting Friday in Islamabad.

The Pakistan Muslim League-N of former premier Nawaz Sharif, which has the second highest number of seats in parliament, said Zardari's name had been put forth without their blessing.

"There was an understanding between the coalition partners that the presidential candidate would be decided by mutual consensus," Ahsan Iqbal, a senior member of Sharif's party, told AFP.

"They have unilaterally floated the name of Mr Zardari -- it is their prerogative, but we have not been consulted yet," he added.

- AFP /ls