Gilani said he had taken up these issues during his recent visit to Washington and the administration of President George W Bush had shown its willingness to work closely with him as the head of the new politically elected government.

In an interview with The News daily, Gilani refuted suggestions that his US visit had unsuccessful claiming it had helped Pakistan to ‘change the aggressive tone of Americans’ as they are now talking of working closely with Islamabad to deal with the unrest in its tribal areas instead of ‘invading’ the region.

On being asked by the US leadership about the ‘effectiveness’ of Musharraf, Gilani said he had told them the President was only a ‘ceremonial’ head of state as the real power to run the government is with the Prime Minister.

Gilani also said he had told the Americans that Musharraf is ‘irrelevant’ to Pakistan as there is a parliamentary system where the Prime Minister is the ‘real boss’.

He also told the US leaders that the people of Pakistan did not appreciate them because they had been supporting the country's military dictators.