PAKISTAN'S RULING coalition will seek to impeach President Pervez Musharraf, party leaders announced Thursday, cranking up pressure on the U.S.-backed former general to resign.

Despite his unpopularity in Pakistan, Musharraf has so far resisted calls to step down and insisted he will serve out his current five-year term after he was elected in a contentious parliamentary vote in October.

Musharraf dominated Pakistan for eight years and became a close U.S. ally after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but ceded control of the powerful army last year and has been largely sidelined since the coalition parties trounced his allies in February parliamentary elections.

Ruling party chief Asif Ali Zardari declared the decision Thursday was "good news for democracy" in Pakistan. Announcing a joint statement alongside his coalition partners after two days of talks, he said it was "imperative" for them to move for Musharraf's impeachment.

Policies pursued by Musharraf during his eight years in power "have brought Pakistan to a critical economical impasse," said Zardari, the widowed husband of former premier Benazir Bhutto who took charge of her party following her assassination in December.

Impeaching a president requires a two-thirds majority support of lawmakers in a joint session of both houses of Parliament. Musharraf loyalists maintain the coalition would struggle to muster it, but Zardari expressed confidence they would succeed.

"We hope that 90 percent of the lawmakers will support us," Zardari said.

Shortly before the announcement, the Foreign Office said Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani would represent Pakistan at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics - rather than Musharraf as originally planned.

That immediately fueled speculation the president had canceled his trip because of the imminent moves to oust him. Political analyst Rasul Bakhsh Rais said, "There is a strong likelihood, but not certainty, that the ruling coalition can impeach him."

Retired general Talat Masood said he did not think Musharraf could survive politically and that his best option was to resign.

He said the president could face a backlash if he tried to exercise his constitutional power to dissolve Parliament in an effort to forestall the impeachment bid. Masood said to exercise that power would require the support of the army.

"The army would be crazy for doing that. The army needs to improve its reputation and image with the people of Pakistan," he said.

The president, a stalwart U.S. ally, has in recent weeks made more public appearances and comments - seen by some in Pakistan as an attempt to show he remains a political force -AP