Nawaz Sharif under house arrest: party....................

Former Pakistani prime minister and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif was placed under house arrest on Sunday hours before he was due to address a protest rally, his party said.

Sharif has thrown his support behind a protest campaign by anti-government lawyers that threatens to bring turmoil to Pakistan as the government struggles to stem militancy and to revive a flagging economy.

"A senior police officer is here and he informed Mr Sharif that he's been detained for three days," said party spokesman Pervez Rasheed.

Police in riot gear virtually sealed off Sharif's house with road blocks on all approaches.

Government officials were not available for comment.

Another party official said Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, who is also a politician and a senior member of his party, had also been ordered detained along with other party leaders.

Police have detained hundreds of lawyers and opposition activists in a crackdown launched on Wednesday to prevent lawyers and opposition parties from embarking on a cross-country "long march" protest.

Nevertheless, black-suited lawyers and flag-waving opposition activists began the march in the south on Thursday, aiming to head to Islamabad for a sit-in outside parliament on Monday.

Authorities quickly broke up the procession and snuffed out protests elsewhere with detentions and roadblocks.

Protest leaders, including Sharif, said they were still determined to rally in Islamabad and a looming showdown raised fears of bloodshed.

Sharif had been due to address a rally in Lahore, his power base, later on Sunday and then head to Islamabad.

If the political crisis gets out of hand, the army could feel compelled to intervene, though most analysts say a military takeover is highly unlikely.

The United States is deeply worried that the crisis is a distraction to Pakistan's efforts to eliminate Taliban and al Qaeda enclaves on the Afghan border, vital to U.S. plans to stabilise Afghanistan and defeat al Qaeda.


RECONCILIATION STEP

In what appeared to be a step toward reconciliation with the opposition, the government said on Saturday it would seek a review of a Supreme Court ruling last month that barred the Sharifs from elected office.

But the secretary general of Sharif's party, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, dismissed the move as "eye-wash" and said the protest would go on.

The Sharifs said Zardari was behind the ruling, which was based on old convictions the Sharifs say were politically motivated.

The ruling nullified a by-election victory by Shahbaz Sharif and disqualified him from holding the office of chief minister of Punjab, the most populous and influential of Pakistan's four provinces.

Zardari then imposed central rule in Punjab for two months, throwing Sharif's party out of power in the province.

Some analysts say Zardari did not want the Sharifs in control of the country's most important province while backing the long march protest.

The protesters' main demand is the reinstatement of former Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who was dismissed in 2007 by then president and army chief Pervez Musharraf.

Zardari, widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has refused to reinstate the judge, seeing him as a threat to his own position.

A senior official in Zardari's party said on Saturday the president was refusing to cave in to pressure from Sharif and his supporters in the media.

"What Nawaz Sharif is offering is a future of overturning the electoral mandate by generating a mob," said the official, who declined to be identified. "If he thinks he's right, let him bring a resolution to parliament and see if he can get a majority."

The official also dismissed talk of any "erosion" in support from the United States or the army.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by telephone to Zardari and the Sharifs on Saturday.