Pakistan's Bhutto political dynasty passed the torch on Sunday as the 19-year-old son of assassinated opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was named chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Bilawal Zardari, a bespectacled Oxford University student, vowed during a live nationwide press conference at his family's ancestral home in southern Sindh province to carry on the work of his slain mother.

Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun-suicide bomb attack last Thursday that stunned the nation and has flung nuclear-armed Pakistan into its biggest crisis in more than three decades.

Party officials also announced that they would not boycott crucial forthcoming parliamentary elections on January 8, which are meant to return Pakistan to civilian rule after more than eight years under military rule by President Pervez Musharraf, who until last month was also the country's army chief.

"My mother always said, 'Democracy is the best revenge'," a reserved Zardari said of Bhutto, 54, a two-time prime minister who fought successive military regimes during her political career and spent time in both prison and self-exile.

In her will, which the PPP's central executive committee viewed during a 4-hour emergency meeting, Bhutto nominated her husband to replace her but he in turn nominated their son.

While appointing Zardari, who changed his middle name to Bhutto, as chairman of Pakistan's largest political party, the PPP's central executive committee also named his father and Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, as co-chairman to handle day-to-day duties while his son finishes his studies in England.

Clearly acting like the man behind the thrown, the elder Zardari reiterated Bhutto's assertions in a recent e-mail to her US-based representative, Mark Siegel, that she would hold embattled President Pervez Musharraf responsible if she were killed.

He demanded the United Nations launch an investigation into his wife's murder as it did following the February 2005 car bomb assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, and said the PPP would seek help from the British government.

"She said while she was alive, who her murderers were," Zardari said. "She herself left a letter which has been released by Mark Siegel and published" by international media.

PPP officials claim that elements within Musharraf's government or security services ordered the hit on Bhutto, who was drawing huge crowds nationwide as she campaigned for an unprecedented third term as prime minister.

The government contends that Bhutto was killed by Taliban militants based in western Pakistan who are linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.

Zardari said all PPP candidates would contest elections, which nonetheless remain in danger of being postponed due to unrest following Bhutto's assassination.

He appealed to fellow opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, to drop his plans to boycott the polls and join the PPP in attempting to seize control of parliament from Musharraf's ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, whom he repeatedly called the "Killer League."

In the aftermath of Bhutto's death, the PPP could gain significantly more votes if elections were held on time from sympathetic voters whose disaffection with Musharraf is at an all- time high.

"We are thankful to Nawaz Sharif that after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, he decided to boycott the elections," Zardari said. "But now, we appeal to him to take back his decision and participate in the elections."

A spokesman from Nawaz's Pakistan Muslim Leage-Nawaz announced late Sunday the party would accept the PPP's offer and contest the elections.

Bilawal Zardari, looking noticeably uncomfortable and slightly shell shocked, did not speak after making a brief statement, leaving his father and Makhdum Amin Fahim, the PPP's vice chairman, to speak to the media.

The elder Zardari refused to let him answer any questions, saying, "He may be our chairman - he is my son, but he is of a tender age."

Bilawal Zardari spent nearly half of his life living abroad in Dubai while his mother was in exile, and studying in England. He attended a prestigious boarding school in Dubai and is studying Law at Oxford.