ISLAMABAD -- Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, hoping to contest national elections later this year, said on Wednesday there was a risk Islamabad would sooner or later try to destabilize the new interim Afghan government.

Hamid Karzai was appointed last month to lead an Afghan interim administration for six months in place of the vanquished Taleban, the hardline Islamic movement which seized power in Kabul in 1996 with Pakistan's backing.

Islamabad withdrew its support for the Taleban after the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington, but Bhutto said the Pakistani government was still suspicious of Karzai's administration.

"Knowing the mindset of the Pakistani establishment, I apprehend that there will be attempts sooner or later to destabilize the Karzai government which Islamabad privately considers as pro-Indian," Bhutto told Reuters in an E-mail interview received on Wednesday.

Karzai's government includes key figures from the Northern Alliance which played a leading role in ousting the Taleban. Pakistan has long accused India of supporting the Northern Alliance.

Nuclear rivals Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since 1947, have been locked in a tense military standoff since New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants for a bloody December attack on its Parliament.

Bhutto said that should her Pakistan People's Party win elections promised by military ruler President Pervez Musharraf by October, she would seek good relations with Afghanistan.

Bhutto served twice as prime minister in 1988-90 and 1993-96. Both terms ended with her being sacked over allegations of corruption, charges she says were politically motivated. She has lived in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London since 1999.