Musharraf, who ruled as a military dictator and later as a civilian president until 2008, could however be detained the moment he arrives back in Pakistan because he has two warrants out for his arrest.

"I am returning to Pakistan between Jan. 27 to Jan. 30," he told a crowd of around 7,000 gathered in the port city of Karachi through a video link from Dubai. He also based himself in London since standing down.

"I'll land in Karachi despite all sorts of dangers to my life," he said, as the crowd chanted "welcome, welcome." "I can sacrifice my life if need be for the people of Pakistan."

A Pakistani court in October issued an arrest warrant for Musharraf and former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz over the killing of a rebel leader in Balochistan, Akbar Bugti, who died in a cave hide-out during an army raid in August 2006.

Another court, in Rawalpindi in February last year, issued another warrant for his arrest over the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack in 2007.

The same anti-terrorism court in August ordered the confiscation of Musharraf's property and the freezing of his bank accounts in Pakistan.

Sen. Faisal Raza Abidi, of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, said Musharraf's fate would be decided in accordance with the courts' orders, meaning he could be arrested the moment he sets foot back on home soil.

In an interview with Reuters later, he said urgent action is needed to salvage Pakistan's dire relations with the United States. "Today Pakistan-US relations are at their lowest, this is because of a trust and confidence deficit," Musharraf said.

"I believe Pakistan needs to justify and clarify the issue of Osama Bin Laden having been found in Pakistan," said Musharraf. "At the same time the United States needs to identify what environment they are leaving in 2014 when they quit because that is going to affect directly Pakistan."

Islamabad's cooperation with Washington is seen as crucial to helping to stabilize the region before foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.

"I believe that inter-state relations are more than half interpersonal relations between the leaders ... if I think about myself, I could anytime pick up the phone to President Bush whenever I got agitated on anything."