Islamabad  - Nine members of Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's party on Tuesday handed in their resignations from the 24-member cabinet, representing a setback to the fragile coalition government.

Sharif announced on Monday that his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was withdrawing its ministers from the six-week-old cabinet because it failed to honour the pledge to reinstate some 60 judges axed by President Pervez Musharraf.

However, the PML-N chief said that his party would continue its support to the governing alliance, adding that "We will not take any step that will benefit Musharraf's dictatorship."

The PML-N cabinet members Tuesday presented their resignations to Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, who is expected to decide on them after consultations with his political party's leader, Asif Ali Zardari.

Zardari, the successor to slain Benazir Bhutto as her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman, and Sharif failed to break the impasse on the mechanics of the judges' restoration after a round of talks in London last week.

The parleys ended in a stalemate on Sunday, a day before the expiry of the revised self-imposed deadline given by the two leaders to restore the judges, including deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

Chaudhry, who proved to be a challenger to Musharraf because of his judicial activism, remained the bone of contention as Sharif pressed for his unconditional reinstatement through a parliamentary resolution whereas Zardari proposed a reform package that allegedly cut down the judge's powers.

Analysts said Zardari was showing reluctance because Chaudhry, once restored, could again take up legal petitions against a controversial law that provided for the dropping of graft and corruption charges against him.

On Tuesday, a higher court in Pakistan's southern Sindh province acquitted Zardari of customs duty evasion charges. He was accused in 1997 of sending crates packed with artefacts to London through state-owned Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) without paying customs duty and freight charges. (dpa)