LONDON (AP) – Power-sharing talks between former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto and President Gen. Pervez Musharraf were deadlocked Saturday, setting back efforts to end military rule as pressure grows to restore democracy.

In London, Bhutto said the talks were at a “standstill” because members of the ruling party objected to working with her Pakistan People’s Party, the country’s main opposition party which she has led from exile.

But in Pakistan, ruling party officials blamed Bhutto, saying she had demanded too many concessions and they would not let “a corrupt politician like her” return and take part in politics.

Bhutto said she plans to return to Pakistan soon, even without an agreement assuring she would not face corruption charges there.

“We understand that there is severe reaction within the present ruling party to any understanding with the Pakistan People’s Party,” Bhutto said. “Due to that reaction no understanding has been arrived at and we are making our own plans to return to the country.”

The two camps had been negotiating an agreement for Musharraf to resign as army chief, ending military rule of Pakistan since he seized power in a 1999 coup. Bhutto also wanted the president to give up the power to dismiss the government and parliament. However, she has failed to win a public commitment from Musharraf on those two critical points.

A collapse of the talks would increase the risk of instability and turmoil in Pakistan and likely alarm the country’s Western backers, including the United States, which is hoping the next government will maintain the country’s fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Musharraf is seeking re-election to another five-year term in presidential elections expected in September or October. But with his popularity plummeting and challenges to his rule growing, he turned to Bhutto for help to broaden his public support.

Without the power-sharing agreement, he would face potential challenges from Bhutto, who wants to return home to contest parliamentary elections in January. Another former leader and Musharraf opponent, Nawaz Sharif, is also preparing to return to Pakistan.

In the Pakistani capital Islamabad, Musharraf’s spokesman declined to comment on the state of the talks. But Azim Chaudhry, a senior member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q party, said Bhutto “was asking too many concessions.”

“Our party was not ready to allow a corrupt politician like her to return to Pakistan and take part in politics against us,” he told The Associated Press. “She wanted that the president should not have the power to dissolve the parliament. She wanted that we should scrap corruption cases against her, and this is what we didn’t accept.”

However, Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a close aide to Musharraf, maintained there was still hope for success in the talks.

After serving as prime minister in the 1990s, Bhutto left Pakistan in 1999 to avoid arrest after her government collapsed amid allegations of corruption and misrule.

Previously, she said that the charges would need to be dropped before she would return. But in Pakistan, ruling party officials said Saturday Bhutto would still face the corruption charges if she returned.

Nevertheless, she said it was important that she end her exile.

“We’ve taken the decision to announce on Sept. 14 the date of my return because we feel my return would be a factor for the stability of Pakistan,” she said, adding the announcement would be made in Pakistan. “I feel the stage is set for the restoration of democracy and I hope to go back to play my part.”

On Wednesday, Bhutto said Musharraf agreed to resign from the military before running for re-election as part of their negotiations, but government officials later denied he had agreed to the deal.

Musharraf, who has governed Pakistan virtually unchallenged for eight years after seizing power in 1999, recently began calling for moderates to unite against extremism amid growing pressure from the United States to crack down on the spreading influence of militant groups linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

According to Pakistani law, Musharraf must stand for re-election by the national and provincial assemblies between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15, and parliamentary elections have to be held by mid-January. An amendment allowing Musharraf to serve simultaneously as president and army chief runs out on Dec. 31.

Musharraf triggered massive protests in Pakistan when he suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in March. He was reinstated in July. Pakistan’s newly independent Supreme Court could declare Musharraf’s continued military rule unconstitutional.

The general needs Bhutto’s cooperation in passing a constitutional amendment that would allow him to get around the requirement that government officials be out of office for two years before running for re-election.

As part of the power-sharing agreement, Bhutto’s party would have abstained from the presidential election, then taken part in the parliamentary vote. She wanted Pakistan’s ban on prime ministers serving a third term lifted, which would allow her, as well as Sharif to run again for prime minister.

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Associated Press reporters Munir Ahmad and Matthew Pennington in Islamabad contributed to this report.

AP-ES-09-01-07 1842EDT