Moves were afoot on Saturday to clip President Pervez Musharraf's [Images] sweeping powers despite the United States standing by the beleaguered Pakistani leader.

The Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP), which has emerged as the single largest force in the new National Assembly, is planning to strip Musharraf of the power to dismiss Parliament under Article 58 of the Constitution which he had reinstated.

Leaders of PPP, which will head the next coalition government, have been holding closed door meeting to chart out their course of action which is likely to be made public on Monday.

However, in a clear indicator that it would curtail the President's powers the party said in a statement that the participants in the meeting had vowed to work for the restoration of the parliamentary supremacy "by undoing undemocratic provisions under which elected parliaments have been dismissed".

The party meanwhile put off naming prime minister till the first week of March but veteran Sindhi politician Makdhoom Amin Fahim continued to be the frontrunner.

For Musharraf the positive news emanated from Washington where Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice gave credit to him for holding free and fair elections and said, "the President of Pakistan is Pervez Musharraf.... and so, of course, we will deal with him."

US Ambassador Anne Patterson and British High Commissioner Robert Brinkley have met PPP leader and slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto's [Images] husband Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N leader and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif to press them to co-exist with Musharraf.

While Sharif has adopted a hardline stance against Musharraf who he wants to step down, PPP has stopped short of pushing for his removal and instead, stressed on restoring supremacy of Parliament.

Fahim reflected the PPP's approach to Musharraf by saying that the party should not "rock the boat at this time". There should be smooth transition of power from the military to the civilians, he said.