ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- More than 13,000 nominations have been filed for the January 8 elections in Pakistan amid talks of boycotting the polls by opposition parties, officials said Sunday.

""A total of 13,490 nomination papers have been filed for the general elections,"" an election commission spokesman told AFP.
The candidates will compete for 272 seats in the National Assembly and 577 in provincial assemblies constituencies, he said, adding that the election commission is holding a meeting on Monday to review electoral procedures.
Key opposition parties of former premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif said Saturday the two leaders would have face-to-face talks early next week to discuss whether or not to boycott upcoming elections.
Bhutto has said that her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) will participate in the polls under protest of the emergency rule imposed November 3 by President Pervez Musharraf.
But Sharif has said the vote would be meaningless unless the judiciary -- which was purged of judges whom Musharraf perceived to be hostile to him after he imposed emergency rule -- is restored to its original status.
A spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Raja Zafarul Haq, said the meeting between the mainstream opposition leaders was expected to occur on Monday.
Meanwhile, the filing of nomination papers has been delayed in some 18 constituencies of the North Western Frontier Province and tribal areas bordering Afghanistan following unrest in several areas, the election commission spokesman said.
Pakistan's military launched a massive operation two weeks ago against militants loyal to pro-Taleban cleric Maulana Fazlullah in Swat and Shangla districts in which some 250 militants have been killed.
Musharraf, sworn in Thursday to a second term as president, installed judges in the judiciary after imposing emergency rule who endorsed his October 6 re-election by the assemblies and also validated all extra-constitutional actions.
He has since bowed to intense international pressure, saying that he would lift emergency rule by December 16 and he wanted to make the elections free and fair.
The country's main religious alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, is also divided over the boycott issue, particularly its two major components Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
On Saturday, Pakistani election authorities in the eastern city of Lahore rejected the candidacy of Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, due to pending criminal charges against him, as well as an alleged bank loan default.