Zardari vows to battle on as Pakistan President

Beleaguered Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardarihas vowed to continue as the country's head of state despite the "fabricated crisis'' built around him amid rising tensions with the powerful military establishment.

He used a speech on the fourth anniversary of the assassination of his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to issue a firm challenge to those within the nation who wish to unseat him.

"We want to make history, not headlines. I tell you politics - which we have left to our prime minister and the cabinet - is the art of the possible. But making a nation is the art of the impossible and I believe I am doing the art of the impossible," Zardari told thousands of supporters at Bhutto's mausoleum in Southern Sind province's Garhi Khuda Bakhsh village.

This was the president's first public appearance since he returned to the country after a brief hospitalisation in Dubai amid tensions with the army over an alleged memo that sought US help to prevent a coup and clip its powers in May.

"I am a constitutional president and (Yousaf Raza) Gilani is a constitutional prime minister," Zardari said amid speculation that his hospitalisation was part of the attempts to depose him.

Relations between Zardari, who became president in the wake of his wife's death, and the military have always been tense but have deteriorated significantly in recent months. Senior officers believe Zardari or close aides penned a leaked, unsigned – and unauthenticated – memo appealing to Washington for aid in heading off a military coup earlier this year. Hearings into the affair are being held by Pakistan's Supreme Court and could seriously destabilise the government.