Anxious to shoot down rumours that restive generals had placed him under house arrest, Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president and army chief, yesterday claimed to be more worried about a forthcoming game of tennis.

"It is a joke of the highest order," he told Reuters from the presidency building in Islamabad, where he had just met more than 80 foreign diplomats to explain his decision to proclaim a state of emergency at the weekend. The need for a denial is revealing.