Islamabad - Despite repeated denials by the beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf over the last three days, Pakistan remained abuzz on Saturday with rumours of his almost inevitable stepping down.

"I was in my office this morning when a friend of mine informed me through an SMS that the military had forced Musharraf to resign. I checked it out on TV but there was nothing about it," said Irfan Ahmed, a computer engineer at a local software company, while buying sandwiches for his lunch from a bakery in Islamabad.

Ahmed said many of his colleagues and relatives had also received similar messages in recent days. "I hope he (Musharraf) quits soon so political calm returns to the country," he added.

Musharraf, who took over in a bloodless coup in 1999, has been under immense pressure to leave office since February 18 elections which saw his political allies defeated.

The country was taken by storm on Thursday when the News claimed Musharraf had decided "to call it a day" after he was informed by Army Chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani that he no longer enjoyed the support of the military, the main power base of the retired general.

Musharraf refuted the report, calling it "part of a malicious campaign to create unrest in the country." This, however, did not stop media from reporting on the issue.

The same newspaper claimed on Saturday while quoting a former federal minister, who recently made a courtesy telephone call to Musharraf that he had "made up his mind to resign the day the impeachment motion was moved against him in the parliament as he would not like to be humiliated."

"But he would not go down without fighting," said the minister, who refused to be identified. "General Musharraf is completely isolated because of his own unwise steps."

A report in another English-language daily The Nation said the differences between the president and Asif Ali Zardari, who heads the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), had reached at no-return point.

Zardri, the widower of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has conveyed a clear message to Musharraf through mediators that "he will neither create any embarrassing scene for President Musharraf if the latter quits in the near future," said the report.

Political analyst and retired general Talat Masood said the local media was not exaggerating the situation on ground.

"He is certainly under pressure from every corner of the society to quit," Masood said. "President's resignation is almost unavoidable. He might resist for some days or weeks but not for months."

Nawaz Sharif, whose party supported the PPP in forming the existing coalition government, has demanded Musharraf's trial for "abrogating the constitution," referring to the imposition of emergency by the president on November 3.

The legal fraternity was set to start a long march from the central city of Multan into Islamabad, to protest Musharraf's removal of justices, influential civil society and dozens of retired generals.

Musharraf, a key US ally in the fight against Islamic extremists, who was quite popular when he took over in 1999 promising to launch a campaign against corruption, began losing popularity in March last year when he removed independent-minded chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry apparently for ruling against the government.

Chaudhry was reinstated by the Supreme Court only to be re-sacked on November 3's emergency proclamation as it was preparing to rule on his controversial re-election for the next presidential term.

The only support the embattled leader has secured during the current crisis comes from US President George W Bush, who considers him a top ally in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.

"The president reiterated the United States' strong support for Pakistan, and he indicated he looked forward to President Musharraf's continuing role in further strengthening US-Pakistani relations," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters in Washington on Friday after Bush talked to Musharraf on the telephone.

But this might not be very helpful for Musharraf, who, according to analysts, is going down anyway.

"The logic of facts and circumstances leave little doubt that he must go," wrote the former ambassador and political commentator Inayatullah in the Nation. (dpa)