ISLAMABAD: Asif Ali Zardari became Pakistan's president on Tuesday and faced immediate pressure to combat the Islamic militant insurgency that has engulfed the nation in the past year, as well as a struggling economy.

Zardari, the controversial 53-year-old widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, was sworn in at a closely-guarded ceremony at the presidential palace in the capital Islamabad.

He secured a large win in a poll among lawmakers Saturday, and is now the 14th president in the short but often turbulent history of the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic state and frontline US "war on terror" ally.

Zardari – who spent 11 years in jail on a variety of charges ranging from corruption to murder, but was never convicted – succeeds Pervez Musharraf, the former army general who resigned on August 18 under threat of impeachment.

"I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan," Zardari said, reciting the oath of office in a ceremony broadcast live to the nation, as his three children looked on.

"May Allah Almighty help and guide me, amen," he concluded, sitting down to loud cheers of "Long live Bhutto", and "Bhutto is alive".

Afghan President Hamid Karzai joined government leaders, military top brass, judges, diplomats and high-ranking civil servants at the ceremony, at which Pakistan's chief justice administered the oath of office.

A military guard of honour greeted Zardari on the lawn of the presidential palace at the conclusion of the ceremony.

"It is a very significant day in the history of Pakistan and it is the victory of the people and the mission of Benazir Bhutto shaheed (martyr)," said MP and senior Zardari aide Farzana Raja before he was sworn in.

"The dream that she saw for the people of Pakistan has come true," she added, reflecting on Bhutto's plans for the country before her assassination at a campaign rally in December 2007.

Security around President House, which is situated in the already high-security zone of Islamabad, had been further fortified ahead of the inauguration, officials said.

Zardari, who has said previously that he expects to be targeted by extremists such as those who killed his wife, takes control of a country riven by Islamic militancy and economic turmoil.

His inauguration comes amid mounting international concern about the stability of Pakistan, which under Musharraf backed the United States after the September 11 attacks in 2001 and in its subsequent invasion of Afghanistan.

Billions of dollars of aid flowed to Islamabad in return.

But around 1,200 people have died in bombings and suicide attacks across the country in the past year, in violence attributed to a backlash against Musharraf's support for Washington.

The violence was underscored during Saturday's election when a suicide car bomber rammed a police checkpost, killing 33 people and wounding more than 80 others in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

US President George W. Bush was set to describe Pakistan later Tuesday as a major battleground in the "war on terror", along with Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They are all theatres in the same overall struggle. In all three places, extremists are using violence and terror in an attempt to impose their ideology on whole populations," Bush said in an advance text released late Monday.

His message comes amid media reports of multiple strikes inside Pakistan recently by US or international troops based in Afghanistan, which accuses its neighbour of abetting or at least turning a blind eye to cross-border violence.

"Defeating these terrorists and extremists is in Pakistan's interest because they pose a mortal threat to Pakistan's future as a free and democratic nation," Bush said in the prepared remarks.

Zardari was to speak to reporters later Tuesday and was expected to outline his vision for Pakistan, including his plans to counter extremism and turn around an economy beset by rampant inflation and a plunging stock market.

As co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Zardari already heads a fragile coalition government which, although still in office, recently lost the backing of the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.


- AFP/so