ISLAMABAD (AFP) -- Pakistan's government said Wednesday it will give former premier Benazir Bhutto extra security on her homecoming next week and that it has authorized her to import a special bullet-proof car.

Bhutto's opposition Pakistan People's Party has requested police protection for its leader, the first female prime minister of an Islamic nation, when she returns from self-imposed exile on October 18.
The move follows a reported threat by a pro-Taleban militant leader from Pakistan's troubled tribal belt to kill the Western-friendly, Oxford-educated Bhutto in a suicide attack.
""We will provide her security and we expect her representative to discuss the arrangements with the Interior Ministry authorities,"" Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told AFP.
Sherpao said the government had already given Bhutto permission to bring a bullet-proof car into the country for her use.
President Pervez Musharraf agreed last week to give Bhutto an amnesty on the corruption charges that drove her into exile, in a prelude to a likely power-sharing deal between the two.
But newspapers reported last week that Baitullah Mehsud -- a pro-Taleban chief from the South Waziristan tribal region blamed for several recent suicide attacks -- had issued a threat to kill her.
""We have written a letter to the government asking for them to provide police protection for Benazir Bhutto because of the precarious law and order situation in the country,"" her lawyer Farooq Naik told AFP.
""We have also asked for a bullet-proof car for her, but have not yet decided whether to hire a private security firm as well for her protection,"" Naik added.
""All former prime ministers get state protection and it is her constitutional and legal right.""
Bhutto served as premier from 1988-1990 and again from 1993-1996. Her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was overthrown as prime minister in 1977 and executed by military dictator Zia-ul-Haq two years later.
Pakistan has suffered a wave of suicide blasts, many of them targeting the military, since government troops launched a bloody raid on the Al-Qaeda and Taleban-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.
Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the ""war on terror"", has escaped at least three assassination attempts including two that targeted his motorcade in December 2003.