ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Musharraf has agreed to resign as army chief in a power-sharing deal, Benazir Bhutto — an exiled former prime minister — said yesterday.

General Musharraf had previously insisted that he would remain army chief while standing for re-election, but a deepening political crisis appears to have forced the key ally in the American-led war on terror to compromise.

After months of secretive political horse-trading, Ms. Bhutto, who has consistently said she would not strike a deal with General Musharraf unless he stepped down as army chief, told the Daily Telegraph on Monday that the “uniform issue is resolved.”

“The uniform issue is key, and there has been a lot of movement on it in the recent round of talks,” said Ms. Bhutto, referring to negotiations in London, where she is based. The claimed shift comes days after the Supreme Court ruled that another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, whom General Musharraf ousted in a coup in 1999, was allowed to return from exile.

Pakistan’s leading English-language newspaper, Dawn, said sources close to the president had confirmed that he had offered to retire from the army, the main source of his authority, before being re-elected as a civilian president in mid-September ahead of general elections early next year.

General Musharraf, faced by an increasingly bold Supreme Court, has asked Ms. Bhutto to support a constitutional amendment allowing him to be re-elected.

Ms. Bhutto said the government would have to make “an upfront gesture of reciprocity, a clear indication of political support for the Pakistan People’s Party.”