Hours before parliament was dissolved at the end of its five-year term, he settled on close ally Mohammedmian Soomro, a former banker aged 57 and member of Musharraf's own ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party.

"I want to say that from tomorrow onwards, Mohammedmian Soomro sahib is the prime minister," Musharraf, dressed in a black suit instead of his military uniform, said at a dinner for outgoing government members.

"We are introducing a new culture of smooth transition which is as it should be in civilized societies. The assemblies are completing their five-year term in a better way than before," Musharraf said.

Soomro will be sworn in at a ceremony on Friday morning.

He will take over from premier Shaukat Aziz, who left office when the national assembly dissolved at midnight Thursday after serving its first full mandate in Pakistan's history.

"The outgoing prime minister approved the notification for the dissolution of parliament. It took place at one second after midnight," parliamentary affairs minister Sher Afgan told AFP.

The political developments came as three people, including two boys, were killed when gunfire broke out during protests in the southern city of Karachi by supporters of detained opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

They were the first such deaths under emergency rule.

Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999, is facing growing international pressure to quit as army chief, end the state of emergency and allow a free and fair vote.

The military ruler has promised elections by January 9, but said they would be held under the state of emergency he imposed earlier this month.

Attorney General Malik Mohammad Qayyum said Musharraf would quit his army post by December 1, after the Supreme Court has ruled on the legality of his October 6 re-election as president.

Musharraf's own term officially ends at midnight but as incumbent, he will remain in office until the court decision.

"Today I should have given up my uniform, but I could not do it because the Supreme Court barred me from taking the oath and the case was lingering and lingering," Musharraf said earlier.

Bhutto, who had been in power-sharing negotiations with the military ruler before he declared emergency rule but has now broken them off, said he would not be acceptable as ruler even if he shed his uniform.

"Too much water has gone under the bridge," she told Dawn television from house arrest in the eastern city of Lahore.

"We have said very clearly that we cannot keep doors open when commitments are broken."

Bhutto and another former premier, Nawaz Sharif, spoke by telephone about working together to oust Musharraf, an alliance that would bring together two of the country's biggest opposition parties.

Bhutto earlier spoke for two hours with US consul general Bryan Hunt, who crossed the barbed wire barricades to see her under house arrest.

John Negroponte, number two to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is due to arrive Friday to press the concerns of Washington, which sees Pakistan as a vital ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

In Washington, the White House moved to quell speculation it was giving up on Musharraf and weighing other options.

Asked if US President George W. Bush was losing confidence in him, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: "Let me make it very clear, the president is focused on the here and now."

However US Defense Secretary Robert Gates later warned that Musharraf's effectiveness as an ally depends on what happens next in the political crisis.

Musharraf's "ability to continue to be a partner in the war on terror very much depends on how events unfold over the next few weeks in Pakistan," Gates told a Pentagon news conference.

In Karachi, police official Fayyaz Khan said that during a protest against Bhutto's house arrest, "somebody among the demonstrators opened fire and two boys aged around 11 or 12 were killed."

Tension gripped the area after the shooting and further gunfire broke out, in which a worker from Bhutto's party was reported killed.

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