We'll provide PPP only external support: PML-N

SPLIT VIEW: Despite the warmth between Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, the two sides have many unresolved differences.

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New Delhi: After days of ambiguity, the PML-N on Tuesday made it clear that it will provide only external support to the PPP-led government and will not join the new cabinet.

"We do not want to take oath under the administration of President Musharraf," PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said.

Despite the warmth between Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari, the two sides have many unresolved differences.

• Nawaz Sharif repeated there would be no truck with the President, but the PPP remains willing to play ball.
• The PML also has reservations about the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) joining the federal government.
• And though the US has made some headway in talks with Zardari on Musharraf's future, Nawaz Sharif has remained inflexible.

The PML got more power for its course with about 26 independents joining the party, and about 30 leaders of the defeated PML-Q leaving the party. Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz also announced they will stand in the upcoming by-elections.

However the bar on Nawaz becoming the Prime Minister for the third time remains. So Nawaz may find it more prudent to wait it out for now, until perhaps the next election, where he hopes to improve tallies in both Punjab and at the National Assembly.