The Commonwealth also said yesterday it expected President Pervez Musharraf to fulfil his pledge to stand down as chief of the army by the end of this year, and it would monitor progress on that move.

Secretary General Don McKinnon said Pakistan had to fully implement amendments to its constitution "in letter and in spirit", including "the issue of the separation of the offices of the president and chief of army staff".

The decision brings to an end the four-and-half-year suspension imposed after Musharraf seized power through a military coup. It seals the reintegration of the world's second largest Muslim country into the international community.