Islamabad, January 2: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Wednesday that Britain would help investigate the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, whose slaying has forced the delay of crucial scheduled elections by six weeks.

In a televised address to the nation, Musharraf said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed to immediately send investigators from Scotland Yard amid conflicting official government versions and what he called "conspiracy theories" about Bhutto's slaying.

However, the investigators would be limited to assisting Pakistani authorities with forensic evidence and other technical issues, falling far short of demands by Bhutto's political supporters for an independent United Nations inquiry.

In his most detailed comments since Bhutto's slaying and three days of rioting that followed, a stern-sounding Musharraf claimed a senior Taliban commander and a radical Islamic cleric were behind the murder.

"The entire nation and the media should run a campaign to expose these people," Musharraf said in a 25-minute address. "Unless we arrest those people who recruit suicide bombers we cannot get rid of this evil of terrorism."

He also said he supported holding the elections as scheduled next Tuesday, but deferred to the judgment of the Election Commission of Pakistan, which earlier Wednesday postponed the polls until Feb 18 due to extensive damage by rioters to electoral offices in the southern province of Sindh, Bhutto's political stronghold.

He said damage from the rioting cost the country tens of millions of dollars. "The law and order situation made it absolutely necessary to delay the election date," Musharraf said, adding that army and paramilitary troops deployed to quell the violence would remain deployed through the elections. He again asserted that the polls would be "free, fair, transparent and peaceful."

Musharraf's address was unlikely to satisfy his political opponents in Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), who demanded that the polls be held as scheduled.

Analysts say the opposition parties believed they could have swept the elections if they were held on schedule, riding a wave of sympathy for Bhutto and massive dissatisfaction with Musharraf and his political backers, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).

PPP officials have publicly accused rogue elements within Musharraf's government of assassinating Bhutto, who was drawing huge crowds after returning from self-exile to campaign for an unprecedented third term as prime minister. They have demanded a United Nations inquiry into her death similar to one done following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

While not directly accusing them of assassinating Bhutto, Musharraf mentioned Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas opposite Afghanistan and Maulana Fazlullah, a radical Islamic cleric whose armed followers had seized towns in a scenic resort area before being beaten back by police, as being major threats to the country.

"I can say I'm sure that these are the people who have martyred Benazir Bhutto," the Pakistani leader said, noting that both men had ordered suicide bombings against attacked civilian and military targets.

Musharraf's government had resisted the idea of a UN investigation into Bhutto's slaying, but given growing public scepticism with official government claims that the attack was carried out by Islamic militants, a foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday that Pakistan would be open to international assistance.

Ahsan Iqbal, a PML-N, said the embattled Musharraf should resign for failing to uphold law and order, and that a "national unity government" should be appointed to organize new elections to ensure they are fair. "The government's postponing of the elections only to save the ruling party from certain defeat that has become inevitable after the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto."

The Bush administration, Musharraf's key foreign supporter, had brokered Bhutto's return home from self-exile last October to create a popular civilian government of following more than eight years of military rule under Musharraf, who just retired as chief of the army. Bhutto had agreed to form a partnership with Musharraf to fight Islamic extremism and promote democracy in the nuclear-armed nation.