The party of slain Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto will call on the United Nations for an inquiry into her assassination if it forms a government after elections next month, a party spokesman said yesterday.

The Pakistan People?s Party (PPP) has aired deep suspicions over the motives and identities of Bhutto?s assassins, who launched a gun-and-bomb attack against her at the end of a campaign rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Dec. 27.

?If the PPP comes to power, we will ask the U.N. to hold an inquiry,? said Farhatullah Babar, a senior official in Bhutto?s party, who accuses the government of screening the real culprits. ?The government?s position on the assassination has been shifting from day to day,? he added.

The government has blamed al Qaeda and initially said Bhutto was killed when the suicide-bomb blast threw her head against the sun-roof lever of the car in which she was standing, despite TV footage showing a gunman firing at her head a split second before.

The official version, which also contradicted eyewitness reports of gunshot wounds, has stoked suspicions among Pakistanis that government or military elements opposed to the country's transition to civilian-led democracy were behind the attack.

?The Scotland Yard team, if it contacts the PPP, we will extend its cooperation but we believe that the Scotland Yard investigation has already been circumscribed,? Babar said. He said Bhutto had named several people she suspected were out to kill her in a letter sent to Musharraf last month, but Babar said it was clear that those named would not be probed.

?If the Scotland Yard team cannot investigate the people named in Mrs Bhutto's letter ... what use is an inquiry?? he said. Bhutto?s body was buried the day after her killing, in keeping with Muslim custom, without a post-mortem. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, now the party?s de facto leader, declined to comment yesterday. He has not said yet whether the family would agree to the exhumation of Bhutto?s body without the formation of a full UN inquiry. ?I don't want to respond to anything at the moment,? he said by phone from Dubai.

?I think it was she to blame alone?

In an opinion article in Saturday?s Washington Post, Zardari urged that a new caretaker government be named to oversee national elections that were postponed until Feb. 18. Elections were delayed from the original date of Jan. 8 after Bhutto?s assassination.

On Saturday, CBS News quoted President Pervez Musharraf as conceding that a gunman might have shot Bhutto after all. But he said the opposition leader exposed herself to danger and bore responsibility for her death.

Musharraf was also quoted as telling the CBS ?60 Minutes? program to be broadcast yesterday that his government did everything it could to provide security for Bhutto, who was killed last week in a gun and suicide-bomb attack after a political rally. ?For standing up outside the car, I think it was she to blame alone. Nobody else. Responsibility is hers,? Musharraf said in the interview taped on Saturday morning.

Pakistan?s government has said Bhutto died when she struck her head on a handle on her vehicle?s sunroof ? a contention widely derided in Pakistan where many people suspect Musharraf?s government of complicity. The government has also blamed al Qaeda for the attack.

Musharraf was asked by CBS, which provided excerpts of the interview, whether a gunshot could have caused Bhutto?s head injury. He replied, ?Yes, yes.? The questioner asked, ?So she may have been shot?? and Musharraf said, ?Yes, absolutely, yes. Possibility.?

In an opinion article in the Washington Post, Asif Ali Zardari urged that a caretaker government be named to oversee national elections that were postponed until next month and he outlined other standards for assessing their legitimacy. ?Democracy in Pakistan can be saved, and extremism and fanaticism contained, only if the elections, when they are held, are free, fair and credible,? he wrote.

Zardari is the new co-chairman of Bhutto's Pakistan People?s Party, alongside their son Bilawal. Musharraf, a US ally in its battle against terrorism, postponed the general election from Jan. 8 to Feb. 18, and the PPP is expected to benefit from a wave of sympathy for Bhutto.

Musharraf, whose re-election as president in October is still disputed by the opposition, will need support in the next parliament and looks likely to have to renew efforts to reach an understanding with the Bhutto?s party, analysts say.

?Free of cronies from Mushraraf?s party?

Zardari has said the PPP would take part in the vote. But the elections, he said in the Post, must be conducted under a ?new, neutral caretaker government, free of cronies from Musharraf's party.? He also called for an independent election commission, monitoring by trained international observers with access to polling stations and an ability to conduct exit polls, press freedom and an independent judiciary.

He urged that the United States and Britain join the push for a UN probe. Britain has sent a team from Scotland Yard to help the government of nuclear-armed Pakistan investigate the killing, and Washington has endorsed the step. However, Zardari said, ?an investigation conducted by the government of Pakistan will have no credibility, in my country or anywhere else.?

Bhutto had complained to an acquaintance shortly before she died that the Pakistani government was not meeting her security pleas. CBS asked Musharraf whether he believed the government did everything possible for her security. ?Absolutely,? he said. ?She was given more security than any other person.?