Musharraf held a closed-door meeting with Sharif just before a federal cabinet sitting on Monday to discuss `important matters', English daily Pakistan Observer said in a front-page news item quoting sources.

The Army chief reportedly asked the government to lodge a protest with the US Government saying its warning amounted to an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty, it said.

A senior US official while hinting at a possible military coup in Pakistan following recent political disturbances last week said ``we would strongly oppose any attempt to change the government through extra-constitutional means."

The Army chief, the report said, told the Premier that the armed forces have ``amply demonstrated their commitment topolitical and democratic dispensation'' and it would be ``unwise to implicate the Army in baseless rumour-mongering''.

Meanwhile, director general of the inter-services public relations (ISPR) Brig Rashid Qureshi has expressed surprise over the US comment saying he could not understand what the Army had done to evoke such a statement.