Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Friday denied a minister's statement that he would seek another term of office after the present one expires in 2007,the local news paper Dawn reported on Saturday.

"This is a personal opinion and not my opinion, and I have never said anything in this regard," he said when asked to comment on Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed's statement on the matter.

Rashid said Tuesday that Musharraf will seek another five-year term as head of state after his current tenure ends in 2007.

Pakistani opposition parties on Wednesday condemned a statement by the government that President Pervez Musharraf will remain the country's leader beyond 2007, despite earlier indications that he would step down by that time.

However, Musharraf himself said, "I haven't thought future beyond that."

The president parried a question on whether he would give up his army uniform in 2007 and contest the presidential election as a civilian.

Musharraf replied to these questions after his speech to the concluding session of a six-day Safma conference.

Though parliament members form Pakistani opposition parties had participated in all previous sessions of the conference, none of them was present during Musharraf's address.

Musharraf seized power in October 1999 in a bloodless coup, toppling the elected government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia but is still the chief leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

Musharraf held a referendum to get support to become the head of state and called general elections in 2002 that chose a Parliament and a prime minister. He promised to step down as army chief by the end of 2004 but later reneged citing the need for stability as Pakistan waged a war on terrorism and pursued peace with India.

Source: Xinhua