Islamabad - Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday took the oath of office as president of Pakistan after his weekend election.

Abdul Hamid Dogar, chief justice of the Supreme Court, administered the oath at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, or President House.

Wearing a navy suit and white shirt, Zardari pledged to uphold the constitution and to do his utmost to preserve and protect the nation.

"Now, therefore, let it be known to all in sundry that Mr Asif Ali Zardari has on this 9th day of September 2008 taken the oath as the president and assumed the office of the president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan," the convener announced.

As he signed the oath document, the ceremonial hall echoed with chants of "Long live Bhutto" and "BB is alive," referring to Zardari's wife, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in a suicide gun-and-bomb attack at a December campaign rally.

Zardari, 52, replaced Pervez Musharraf, who resigned last month to avoid impeachment by Parliament.

The leader of the Pakistan People's Party secured more than a two-thirds majority Saturday in the presidential electoral college, made up of the country's two houses of the national Parliament and its four provincial assemblies.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was the chief guest at Tuesday's ceremony, which was also attended by foreign diplomats based in Islamabad, the country's senior civilian and military leadership, and Zardari's two teenage daughters and son.

Earlier, religious rituals were performed, including sacrificing three black goats, when Zardari moved Monday into the President House.

Zardari was scheduled later in the day to hold a press conference, at which he was expected to spell out his strategy to deal with problems that include Pakistan's rising Islamic militancy, record high inflation, severe power shortages and sharply shrinking foreign exchange reserves.

Analysts said one of Zardari's major challenges would be controlling inflation, which has hit the poor hard but also has sharply reduced the purchasing power of the middle class.

Another of his top priorities, they said, would be to maintain a balance between anti-American public sentiment and pressure to support the West in the fight against terrorism.

A suicide bombing next to a police checkpoint on the outskirts on Peshawar, the capital of the militancy-hit North-West Frontier Province, killed 35 people and injured more than 80 on the day Zardari was elected.

The attack was carried out by Taliban entrenched in the country's lawless tribal areas, from where they also target NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

US troops have launched several aerial and at least one ground attack on their hideouts over the past three weeks, causing numerous civilian causalities, Pakistani officials and local residents said.

On Monday, two US drones fired multiple missiles in North Waziristan at an Islamic seminary run by Afghan Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and a residence of his relatives, Pakistani officials said.

Haqqani survived, but 20 people were killed and 25 were injured, many of them women and children, local residents said.

The attack has enraged the Pakistani public, which is increasingly raising demands to abandon support for the fight against terrorism and to stop US raids by force. (dpa)