Islamabad  - Pakistan's ruling coalition said on Saturday it had prepared a charge sheet against President Pervez Musharraf to impeach him in parliament.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman said the draft of the charges had been handed to the Law Ministry, which was expected to convert it into appropriate legal language.

"The legal draft will be presented to the coalition leaders on Sunday or Monday and after their approval it will be tabled in parliament next week," she told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"It's a very long list, and there are so many charges against him, and still we had to leave out much. He has done so many wrongs in the years he illegally ruled this country," she said.

"The leaders might even drop some more charges in the final draft."

The statement came as negotiations for Musharraf's resignation were under way between his friends and representatives of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which leads the coalition.

A close aide to the beleaguered leader and former deputy information minister, Tariq Azeem, told dpa on Friday that "some friends of the president" were in contact with PPP "to win certain guarantees which can convince him to resign and amicably end the confrontation."

"The impeachment process has created political uncertainty, which is harmful for the country. Foreign investors are moving out and the business activity is slowing down," he said.

However, presidential spokesman Rashid Qureshi insisted that the president would "defend himself instead of stepping down."

"Why should he resign? He has done nothing wrong," Qureshi said.

But officials from the United States, Britain and Saudi Arabia have been making hectic diplomatic efforts to secure legal immunity for Musharraf's actions since 1999, when he took over in a bloodless coup as military chief.

Former British High Commissioner - the term used for ambassador among Commonwealth countries - to Pakistan Mark Lyall Grant reportedly held separate meeting with the coalition leaders as well as with Musharraf.

The British high commission, or embassy, has refuted reports that Grant had been mediating, but has not denied that he was in the country last week.

On Friday, Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz, held similar parleys, seeking "safe exit" for the president, the English-language Dawn newspaper reported.

According to an official in Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, the Saudi spy chief "conveyed a message from his King Abdullah to Nawaz Sharif urging him to show flexibility on the Musharraf issue."

Sharif, who was thrown in prison and sentenced to death after Musharraf ousted him in the 1999 coup, has been a stumbling block in the negotiations to grant a "safe passage" to Musharraf, who, according to his aides, is demanding permission to live at his farm house in Islamabad and security cover.

"The king has done so much good to Mr Nawaz Sharif and he has so much leverage on him that he cannot refuse to give safe passage to the president," the foreign ministry official told dpa.

Abdullah, then a crown prince, played a major role in securing an amnesty for Sharif in late 2000 and exile in Saudi Arabia, where he lived for almost seven years.

He also reportedly convinced Musharraf to allow Sharif's return before the February 18 general elections, in which his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz emerged as the second largest party. Musharraf's allies were overwhelmingly defeated in the pools.

The popularity of Musharraf, a key US ally in the international fight against terrorism, began to fade in March 2007 when he sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, an independent-minded judge, who had ruled against his government on several sensitive issues.

Faced with countrywide protests, Musharraf returned him to his post in July, but only to re-sack the justice on November 3 under an emergency order as the Supreme Court was set to rule on his controversial re-election for a second presidential term.

The move was widely criticized by the Pakistani public as well as international rights organizations. (dpa)