Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf approved a constitutional amendment yesterday that endorses his right to stay on as leader until 2007 and allows him to seek a vote of confidence on his presidency from lawmakers, officials said.

Under the bill, Musharraf will quit as chief of the country's army by the end of 2004 and seek a vote of confidence from the two houses of parliament and four provincial legislative assemblies on Thursday.

Musharraf summoned the parliament to meet in Islamabad at 11:00 am (0800 GMT) Thursday for the confidence vote.

"He will get an overwhelming majority, more than the two-thirds cast in favour of the amendment bill," Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali told reporters.

The bill, which has already been adopted by the parliament, has now become part of the country's 1973 constitution, officials said.

The amendment also enshrines Musharraf's power to sack the

parliament.

It was part of a deal struck last week between the ruling coalition and the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic alliance to end a power tussle between the government and the opposition which had deadlocked parliament for more than a year.

At a meeting after the bill was signed, Jamali and Musharraf expressed hope that its passage would mean "a new era of political and democratic stability will dawn in the country," state media said.

It said Musharraf, who escaped unhurt from two assassination attempts this month, and Jamali resolved "to steer the country to sustainable socio-economic progress in an environment of harmony and stability."

Legislators from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), both secular parties led by exiled former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif respectively, boycotted the vote on the bill saying it gives too much power to the president.

"The basic structure of the constitution has been altered and

all powers have been vested in a single individual," PPP senator Raza Rabbani said.

Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and declared himself president in June 2001. He was elected president in a controversial referendum in April 2002.

He held elections in October 2002 to revive parliament but refused to give up powers, including to sack the parliament, that he gave himself in unilateral changes to the constitution just two months before the polls.

Analyst and human right activist I. A. Rehman said on Tuesday that Musharraf's government had won the battle over his powers.

"It conceded nothing. It has changed the system from the parliamentary form to the presidential form of government. Musharraf retains all powers," Rehman told AFP.

However MMA leader Liaquat Baloch has said the new constitutional bill restored the parliament's supremacy and meets a key demand that the president shed his army uniform.